Zuckerberg and Dimon Sell Large Amounts of Shares Ahead of Major New York Stock Market Crash

Bloomberg Analyzes Insider Trading in Q1
Nearly 1 Quadrillion Won in Market Cap Wiped Out During New York Stock Market Crash
Meta and Oracle CEOs Sold Shares Ahead of the Plunge

It has been revealed that American billionaires, including Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, sold large amounts of their company shares before a major crash hit the New York stock market following President Donald Trump's announcement of reciprocal tariffs.

On April 20 (local time), Bloomberg News, citing an analysis by the insider trading firm Washington Service, reported that wealthy Americans sold off large quantities of stocks earlier this month, ahead of the sharp plunge in the New York stock market triggered by President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariff announcement.

Zuckerberg sold 1.1 million shares of Meta stock during the first quarter of this year, mainly through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a charitable foundation he established with his wife, Priscilla Chan.

This sale took place in January and February of this year, when Meta's share price reached an all-time high, and the value of the shares sold amounted to 1.04 trillion won. As of the closing price on April 18, Meta's share price had fallen 32% from its February peak.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, known as the "Emperor of Wall Street," also sold company shares worth 330 billion won in the first quarter, out of a total fortune of 4.3 trillion won. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth is approximately 4.3 trillion won.

Safra Catz, CEO of software company Oracle, also sold 3.8 million shares of company stock worth 1.04 trillion won in the first quarter, when Oracle's share price was hovering at record highs. After Trump's reciprocal tariff announcement on April 2, Oracle's share price plunged 12% by April 17. Including both the value of the shares sold and her remaining holdings, Catz's fortune amounts to 3.4 trillion won.

In addition, it was found that Stephen Cohen, CEO of defense technology company Palantir Technologies, sold company shares worth 480 billion won.

However, Bloomberg News reported that insider stock sales have decreased compared to the same period a year ago, when 4,702 insiders sold a total of $28.1 billion worth of shares. In the first quarter of last year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos alone sold shares worth $8.5 billion (about 12 trillion won).

Bloomberg News analyzed, "While technology stocks surged in the early days of President Trump's term, uncertainty over tariffs increased ahead of so-called Liberation Day on April 2, leading to trillions of dollars in sell-offs across global markets." The report added, "Some billionaire insiders have already used this opportunity to buy undervalued stocks and increase their holdings."

Previously, as the United States enforced reciprocal tariffs, the S&P 500, the main index of the New York stock market, plunged nearly 6% in a single day, and nearly 1 quadrillion won in market capitalization evaporated over the two days of April 4 and 5. The daily decline was even greater than during the dot-com bubble in April 2000 and the September 11 attacks in 2001, causing significant turmoil in the market.