Stockholders claimed the board "agreed to pay significantly more than what Facebook itself perceived as its maximum exposure to protect Zuckerberg from personal liability." Had the case gone to verdict, Zuckerberg faced potential disgorgement of more than US$5 billion in alleged insider trading gains, with another US$3 billion hanging over fellow directors and officers. At issue were security gaps that let Cambridge Analytica siphon data on some 87 million users for political profiling during the 2016 US election. Former director Jeffrey Zients testified that the board viewed Zuckerberg as "essential" to Meta's growth and resisted an earlier FTC bid to name him personally in a 2019 settlement. The deal removes the prospect of Zuckerberg's testimony next week and closes one of the last shareholder efforts to pin personal liability on Meta leadership. If approved, the payment will add to more than US$10 billion Meta has already spent on privacy-related fines and settlements since 2019.