recently filed lawsuit against Facebook reveals new details about the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal, claiming among other allegations that company executives massively overpaid the Federal Trade Commission to shield CEO Mark Zuckerberg from personal liability.
The lawsuit was filed in a Delaware state court by the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island (ERSRI), following a battle over whether troves of internal Facebook communications should be publicly disclosed. The pension fund won that case in February, and used those records to file its latest lawsuit in August.
ERSRI, an investor in Facebook, claims that the $5 billion settlement harmed the social media company—thereby breaching its fiduciary duty to the pension fund.
According to the 200-plus page claim, Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, and other Facebook directors agreed to authorize a multibillion-dollar settlement with the FTC as an “express quid pro quo to protect Zuckerberg from being named in the FTC’s complaint, made subject to personal liability, or even required to sit for a deposition.”
The lawsuit suggests that Facebook overpaid the FTC by some $4.9 billion, since the commission’s previous record fine was $168 million.
