A group of US Facebook shareholders have filed a lawsuit against the Facebook management, writes the technology website Ars Technica.
In the lawsuit, the Facebook management is accused of having paid 4.9 billion dollars – about 42 billion kroner – to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission, which is the US federal authority responsible for consumer protection and competition regulation) to prevent Mark Zuckerberg from being named in the case the FTC had brought against the company after the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2016.
Believes the fine was $ 100 million
The plaintiffs believe that the original fine the FTC would give Facebook when the case was pending in 2019 was just over 100 million dollars – but that Mark Zuckerberg and other top managers in Facebook gave the green light to enter into a settlement with the FTC.
The settlement is said to have been that Facebook paid five billion dollars in exchange for Zuckerberg not being held personally responsible for the privacy scandal, where the personal data of 50 million Facebook users was used by Cambridge Analytica to target political messages to specific voter groups in connection with Donald Trump’s election campaign before the 2016 presidential election.
Sold away shares
In the lawsuit, the Facebook management and board members are also accused of insider trading because they sold off significant amounts of Facebook shares after they learned about Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of Facebook user data.
The Facebook shareholders who have submitted the lawsuit to a court in Delaware include a group of US pension fund managers.
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