CalSTRS filed a motion Tuesday to be added to a derivative lawsuit against Facebook's leadership, including Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, said Vanessa Garcia, spokeswoman for the $241.3 billion pension plan, in an email.
The suit originally was brought by the $478 million Fireman's Retirement System of St. Louis and retail investor Karen Sbriglio.
The lawsuit filed Aug. 7, 2018, in the Delaware Court of Chancery derives from the March 2018 revelation that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica accessed Facebook users' private data without their permission and that the information was used by the Trump presidential campaign in 2016 to pursue voters. The disclosure allegedly caused a $119 billion drop in Facebook's stock price.
On July 24, Facebook agreed to pay a $5 billion penalty to the Federal Trade Commission and to establish a board privacy committee and a board nominating committee. No individuals were involved in the settlement.
"We believe that weak corporate governance practices contributed to the misuse of private data and damage to Facebook's bottom line," said Aeisha Mastagni, CalSTRS' portfolio manager of sustainable investment and stewardship strategies, in a news release. "This lawsuit represents an opportunity to gain greater protections for the public and investors that will build upon recent penalties imposed by the FTC."
California State Teachers' Retirement System, West Sacramento, hired the law firm Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer to represent it in the litigation.
