After being ditched by Mark Zuckerberg, now former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg sanctioned by Delaware judge; here's the reason

A Delaware judge has eventually sanctioned Sheryl Sandberg who was Meta's former Chief Operating Officer for deliberately deleting emails related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, reported Tech Crunch.

According to Tech Crunch, the ruling actually stems from a shareholder lawsuit alleging that former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg used a personal Gmail account under a pseudonym to communicate about sensitive company matters and selectively deleted emails in spite of court instructions to preserve them.

Vice Chancellor Travis Laster determined that former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg likely erased the most probative exchanges while making it harder for her to defend herself in the upcoming trial set in the month of April. As a result, the judge has raised the legal standard for her defense while requiring ‘clear and convincing evidence’ instead of a simple ‘preponderance of evidence’, asserted Tech Crunch.


The lawsuit actually originates from allegations that Meta violated a Federal Trade Commission order of the year 2012 by collecting and sharing user data without consent and that included selling information to Cambridge Analytica, noted Tech Crunch. In the year 2019, Meta reportedly paid a $5 billion fine to settle these charges.

The co-defendant of former Meta COO Sheryl Sanderg named Jeffrey Zients was not similarly sanctioned as his emails were deemed less pertinent. The spokesperson of Sheryl Sandberg eventually maintains a fact that the claims have no merit and that all work emails were preserved on the servers of Facebook. The judge has also ordered Sheryl Sandberg to pay the expenses of the shareholders related to the sanctions motion.

FAQs:

Who has recently sanctioned former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg and why?

A Delaware judge has eventually sanctioned Sheryl Sandberg who was Meta's former Chief Operating Officer for deliberately deleting emails related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.

What did Vice Chancellor Travis Laster determine regarding former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg?

Vice Chancellor Travis Laster determined that former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg likely erased the most probative exchanges while making it harder for her to defend herself in the upcoming trial set in the month of April.