'I'll feed you something raw': Mark Zuckerberg's personal security chief has been put on administrative leave after accusations of harassment and racist remarks
- Mark Zuckerberg's personal head of security has been accused of misconduct by two former members of the Facebook CEO's private staff.
- Liam Booth, a former Secret Service agent, has been accused of sexual harassment and making racist, homophobic, and transphobic comments. Brian Mosteller, another one of Zuckerberg's key aides, has been accused of failing to act after complaints were raised.
- A spokesperson for Zuckerberg's family office said it takes "complaints of workplace misconduct very seriously," it has hired a law firm to investigate, and Booth has been put on "administrative leave" until the matter is resolved.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Mark Zuckerberg's personal head of security has been accused of sexual harassment and making racist and homophobic comments by two former members of the Facebook CEO's private staff, Business Insider has learned. They allege, among other things, that Liam Booth, Zuckerberg's security chief, repeatedly made racist remarks about Zuckerberg's Asian American wife, Priscilla Chan.
Legal demand letters reviewed by Business Insider allege instances of overt racism and sexual impropriety within the most intimate confines of a famously private and unimaginably wealthy family. Facebook spends $20 million annually on Zuckerberg's personal protection and travel.
Booth, who previously worked for the US Secret Service, has been placed on administrative leave as an investigation is carried out.
At a July 2018 event at the sushi restaurant Nobu, one letter alleges, Zuckerberg's security chief grabbed his own crotch and told a household staffer, who is gay, "I'll feed you something raw."
Another demand letter alleges that Booth made racist remarks to a household staffer about Chan's driving ability, including that "she's a woman and Asian, and Asians have no peripheral vision," while pulling his eyelids to the side in a racist caricature.
The accusations have the potential to bring a fresh crisis to the very center of Zuckerberg's domestic affairs at a time when the CEO is trying to steer Facebook out of a turbulent period.