Mark Zuckerberg’s Fortune Rises $3 Billion After U.S. Senate Testimony

Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune rose $3 billion during his U.S. Senate Congressional testimony on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to MarketWatch.

Zuckerberg on Tuesday, appeared before the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees, where he was quizzed by lawmakers on how the social media site handles data privacy.

Facebook’s shares were also up by 4.5 percent, closing at $165, over the course of the Senate hearing, its highest closing price since March 21, with its market capitalization swelling by $20 billion.

Zuckerberg’s fortunes were also expected to rise above his current $66 billion worth, after facing the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

The Facebook CEO is currently the world’s seventh richest person.

He has been at the centre of the controversy surrounding whether he was aware that Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data hacking controversy.

Trouble started for Facebook after a revelation emerged that personal information of as many as 87 million users may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica – a UK-based political data-analytics firm.

Ex-Cambridge Analytica employee, Chris Wylie, had told UK lawmakers last month that Cambridge Analytica illegally gained access to data for 50 million Facebook users.

According to the report, the United States was the most affected country, followed by Philippines, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.