CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold off 1.14 million Facebook shares three weeks before the leak of user information broke out.
This is the biggest sell-off from a company inside a listed company on the US stock market, according to research firm Argus Research .
Compared to a drop of nearly 7% on Monday (March 19), Mark Zuckerberg shares traded above $ 20.
Although Mark Zuckerberg's big sale was in the plan, it took place at the right time, which left few people wondering about the motive behind the sale.
Facebook shares plunged 6.77% in the first trading session of the week after the Facebook scandal broke 50 million social networking users. Stock prices on Facebook Tuesday (March 20) continued to fall by 5.3% compared to the previous day.
By selling a large amount of Facebook stock before falling, Mark Zuckerberg avoided a $ 70 million loss.
Companies often reward stock for leaders and these people can sell stock as planned to register with the Securities Trading Commission.
Figures from Argus Research show that Zuckerberg is the biggest seller. Last September, the CEO announced that it would sell 35-75 million shares in the next 18 months to raise money for charity.
Zuckerberg and his wife (Priscilla Chan) have promised to spend 99% of the company's shares on volunteer activities, focusing on education and health.
In the last two weeks, Zuckerberg has sold 228,400 shares on 8-9 / 3, 220,000 shares on March 12-13 and 245,400 shares on March 14 (quoted by Argus Research ).
In addition to the previous week's sales, Zuckerberg sold a total of 1.14 million shares at an average price of $ 183.81 - $ 210 million. As of March 21, Zuckerberg still holds 391.1 million shares, according to S & P Global Market Intelligence data .
This year, Zuckerberg sold 5.4 million shares, or $ 980 million. If sold at this time, the stock of Zuckerberg only $ 910 million.
However, as Facebook shares plunged last Friday, Zuckerberg's assets fell from $ 75 billion to $ 66 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg .
In addition to Zuckerberg, Facebook's Michael Todd Schroepfer, chief technology officer, sold 38,000 shares on March 13 with an average price of $ 183.2 / share, or $ 6.97 million.
Facebook declined to comment on the sale of large shares of leaders. The company is in the midst of a scandal as information from 50 million users is being used by a consulting firm to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Both the US and UK governments have confirmed they will be in the Facebook investigation. Entangled with a series of criticisms from both the government and users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has not made any official statement.