UK firm suspends CEO during probe of Facebook user data
Exec of Trump-linked company claimed it could entrap politicians
LONDON – The board of Cambridge Analytica, the company credited with helping Donald Trump win the presidency, suspended CEO Alexander Nix on Tuesday in the wake of comments a British broadcaster secretly recorded him making.
In a series of broadcasts by Britain’s Channel 4, Nix was filmed making controversial statements about his firm’s work on elections, including how the firm played a major role in Trump’s victory, including “all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting.”
Nix also appeared to tell a potential client his company could entrap politicians in compromising situations. His suspension was effective immediately.
“Mr. Nix’s recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation,” the board of directors said.
The broadcasts also come amid allegations the London-based data analytics firm hired by the Trump campaign harvested the data of up to 50 million Facebook users without their consent.
In the latest broadcast, which aired Tuesday in Britain, Nix downplayed his private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee when he was asked about his firm’s work for Trump’s presidential campaign.
Nix claimed that Republican lawmakers asked him just three questions. “After five minutes – done,” he said about his December testimony behind closed doors. “They’re politicians, they’re not technical. They don’t understand how it works.”
Nix, in the video shown Tuesday, also claimed credit for Cambridge Analytica’s work with data and research that he said allowed Trump to win the election with a narrow margin of “40,000 votes” in three swing states, giving Trump an electoral college victory, despite losing the popular vote.
Since Trump’s election, Cambridge Analytica has flip-flopped over its role in the campaign. The company initially claimed credit for helping elect Trump, but Nix also sought to portray the firm’s role as minimal amid investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Channel 4’s broadcast came a day after the network showed surreptitiously obtained video of Nix saying his company could entrap politicians.
Monday night’s broadcast in Britain showed one exchange in which Nix said the company could “send some girls around to the candidate’s house.” Ukrainian girls, he said, “are very beautiful. I find that works very well.”
Cambridge Analytica denied Monday that it or its affiliates “use entrapment, bribes or so-called honey-traps” against politicians. It also denied any wrongdoing over the Facebook data it acquired from Cambridge University psychology professor Alex Kogan.