Cambridge Analytica liquidates in wake of data-mining scandal

NEW YORK — Cambridge Analytica, the beleaguered data collection agency that worked for President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign, is liquidating operations.

The British firm filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection late Thursday. It said in a New York court filing that its assets totaled $100,001 to $500,000. Its liabilities are between $1 million and $10 million and it has between one and 49 creditors.

The filing is signed by Jennifer and Rebekah Mercer, sisters who are majority shareholders of Cambridge Analytica. Their father is billionaire Robert Mercer, a Republican megadonor with close ties to Trump. He sold his stake in the pro-Trump website Breitbart News to Jennifer and Rebekah Mercer in late 2017.

Cambridge Analytica has come under scrutiny for possible links to the federal probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 president election and fallen into the crosshairs of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Cambridge Analytica has insisted that none of the Facebook data it acquired from an academic researcher was used in the Trump campaign. The company was able to amass the database quickly with the help of an app that collected data on tens of millions of people and their Facebook friends, even those who did not download the app themselves.

Cambridge Analytica suspended CEO Alexander Nix in March pending an investigation after Britain’s Channel 4 News broadcast clips that showed him saying his data-mining firm played a major role in securing Trump’s presidential election victory.