Top officials at the data firm that worked for President Trump’s 2016 campaign were secretly filmed talking about sending Ukrainian women to the homes of political opponents and offering bribes as part of efforts to entrap politicians.
An undercover investigation by London’s Channel 4 News revealed comments from Alexander Nix, the chief executive officer of Cambridge Analytica, who was secretly taped discussing the firm’s work in putting political opponents in compromising situations. In the recordings, Nix discussed how the British firm used front companies and subcontractors to work in elections worldwide.
The company is taking heat after an investigation from the New York Times and the Observer of London, in collaboration with Channel 4 News, found that Cambridge Analytica improperly harvested private information from Facebook profiles belonging to 50 million users.
Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica from the platform Friday night.
In the Channel 4 piece, Nix and other Cambridge Analytica executives were recorded over a series meeting at hotels in London from November 2017 to January 2018. A reporter for Channel 4 News pretended to be a fixer for a client looking to elect candidates in Sri Lanka.
A spokeswoman for Cambridge Analytica denied allegations that it tries to entrap politicians.
“We entirely refute any allegation that Cambridge Analytica or any of its affiliates use entrapment, bribes, or so-called ‘honey-traps’ for any purpose whatsoever,” the spokeswoman told Channel 4 News. “We routinely undertake conversations with prospective clients to try to tease out any unethical or illegal intentions. Cambridge Analytica does not use untrue material for any purpose.”
During one exchange about finding damaging information on political opponents, Nix suggested they could “send some girls around to the candidate’s house,” and said Ukrainian girls “are very beautiful. I find that works very well.”
Nix said he was providing examples of “what can be done and what has been done.”
“I mean deep digging is interesting, but you know, equally effective can be just to go and speak to the incumbents and to offer them a deal that’s too good to be true and make sure that’s video recorded. These sorts of tactics are very effective,” he said.
During another, the Cambridge Analytica CEO said, “We’ll offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land, for instance. We’ll have the whole thing recorded, we’ll blank out the face of our guy and we post it on the Internet.”
It is a violation of federal law and U.K. law to offer bribes to public officials.
Cambridge Analytica is based in the U.K., but has offices in the U.S.
Nix told the undercover reporter for Channel 4 News, “We’re used to operating through different vehicles, in the shadows, and I look forward to building a very long-term and secretive relationship with you.”
Mark Turnbull, managing director of CA Political Global, the firm’s political division, and Alex Tayler, Cambridge Analytica’s chief data officer, also participated in the meetings.
Turnbull discussed during one meeting how the data firm spreads information on social media.
“We just put information into the bloodstream of the Internet and then, and then watch it grow, give it a little push every now and again … like a remote control,” Turnbull said. “It has to happen without anyone thinking, ‘That’s propaganda,’ because the moment you think, ‘That’s propaganda,’ the next question is, ‘Who’s put that out?’ ”
Nix spoke about the company’s work in more than 200 elections worldwide, including in Nigeria, Kenya, the Czech Republic, India, and Argentina, and discussed setting up false identifies.
“Many of our clients don’t want to be seen to be working with a foreign company … so often we set up, if we are working then we can set up fake IDs and websites, we can be students doing research projects attached to a university. We can be tourists,” he said. “There’s so many options we can look at. I have lots of experience in this.”
