The Facebook parent company Meta has reportedly given almost US$27 million for the protection of its founder.
A filing to the US Security and Exchange Commission by Meta has revealed the overwhelming amount which was spent on safety programs for its CEO. Out of that US$27 million, apparently US$15 was spent on “personal security for Mr. Zuckerberg at his residences” and during his travel periods.
Another US$10 million was given for an “annual pre-tax allowance” which covered the entire Zuckerberg family, while the rest of the money covered their air-travelling expenses.
When asked to justify these amounts in the report, Meta pointed out that it was the notoriety of Zuckerberg himself that made them necessary, stressing that he may come under threat “as a result of the high-profile nature of being our founder, CEO, Chairman, and controlling shareholder.”
“We believe that Mr. Zuckerberg’s role puts him in a unique position: he is synonymous with Meta and, as a result, negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg,” the filing said.
“Mr. Zuckerberg is one of the most-recognized executives in the world, in large part as a result of the size of our user base and our continued exposure to global media, legislative, and regulatory attention.”
It’s worth pointing out that the amount was even higher than last year’s when Meta spent over $23 million on the safety of its founder and CEO.
These costs were significantly smaller when compared to those of major shareholders or owners of other companies such Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who only spent US$1.6 million or Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, with the tech firm reporting only US$630K on his personal security expenses.
