Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg was sanctioned by a judge for allegedly deleting emails

The judgment derives from a case Meta shareholders brought against Sandberg and another former Meta board member, Jeff Zients. The plaintiffs allege that Sandberg and Zients used personal email accounts for communications with the issues linked to the 2018 shareholder lawsuit. The lawsuit Facebook leaders of violating the law and their fiduciary duties. This fails to protect the users’ privacy.
Plaintiffs allege Sandberg and Zients for deleting the emails from their personal inboxes despite court instructions. According to the decision of Tuesday, the Delaware judge overseeing the case found the accusations.
the judge’s decision said
“The defendants disclosed Sandberg’s personal Gmail account, maintained under a pseudonym, that she used to ‘communicate about matters potentially relevant to the claims and defenses in this action,’”
“Counsel’s failure to give a straight answer in Sandberg’s interrogatory responses or when answering plaintiffs’ questions supports an inference that Sandberg was not using an auto-delete function but rather picking and choosing which emails to delete.”
For sanctioning Sandberg the judge raised the legal standard for Sandberg’s affirmative defense. This defense is based on a few facts other than those that support the plaintiff’s claim. Sandberg must have proven her defense by “clear and convincing” evidence. That is not merely a “preponderance” of evidence, this is a burden that’s easier to clear.
The judge has also granted the plaintiffs certain expenses.
During the courtroom battle allegations, Meta officials violated a 2012 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order under which the company decided to stop collecting and sharing Facebook users’ personal data without their consent.
Facebook allegedly sold the data to their commercial partners. That also included political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. It was also accused of removing the disclosure from the privacy settings that were all required under the FTC order.
In 2019, Meta agreed to pay the FTC $5 billion as the settle charges. The company also paid the penalties from regulators in Europe.