Private Army: Mark Zuckerberg’s Security Cost Facebook A Whopping $23 Million Last Year

Mark Zuckerberg, like a number of wealthy CEOs desiring to recieve “humble” compensation, has an official salary of just $1 a year. 

However, according to a financial filing published last Friday, Facebook racked up a whopping $23 million for the company founder’s personal security and travel costs in 2019.

This includes “approximately $10,463,717” for “costs related to personal security for Zuckerberg at his home and during his personal travel.”

“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,” said the filing,

“He is synonymous with Facebook and, as a result, negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg,” it continued.

Apparently this “negative sentiment” is such that it requires something akin to a private army or Zuck’s own secret service, given the massive personal security cost is approaching that of some heads of small foreign countries. 

By comparison, Facebook spent $9.1 million for his security in 2017, and $20 million in 2018. The 2018 security expenditures broke down to about $20,000 a day to protect him.

According to CNBC:

The filing also shows Zuckerberg required $2.95 million for private aircraft costs. He spent $2.59 million on private air travel in 2018 and $1.52 million on it in 2017. 

All of the expenses are filed under “Other compensation” for Zuckerberg. 

Some reports have pointed to a series of “non-stop scandals” of the past two years which have put even more of a spotlight on Zuckerberg.

“It has been under fire for everything from personal privacy issues following revelations that data-firm Cambridge Analytica collected information on 87 million Facebook users, to enabling the spread of white supremacy and hate speech on the platform,” CNN notes. “Those events have drawn a large amount of exposure for the company and its 34-year-old co-founder.”

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Here’s a brief summary of the new filing’s highlights: 

• Mark Zuckerberg’s annual salary remains just $1 but Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) spent $23.4M on his security and private air travel in 2019, at least $3M more than the company spent for the services in 2018, according to an SEC filing published on Friday.
• COO Sheryl Sandberg took home ~$875K in base pay last year, up from $843K the previous year, and she received a bonus of more than $902K, up from $638K in 2018, and $19.6M in stock awards, vs. $18.4M in stock awards in 2018.
• Sandberg’s personal security cost $4.37M in 2019, up from $2.9M in 2018, and her use of private aircraft cost Facebook $1.3M in 2019 vs. $908K in 2018.