Cambridge Analytica, the now-notorious analytics firm at the centre of 2018’s biggest data scandal, has filed for bankruptcy in the United States. The company has blamed the “siege of media coverage” for allegedly driving away customers and forcing the closure.

The bankruptcy proceedings are part of a process that began in early May to close down the company and its equally-maligned UK parent firm, SCL Elections. Despite the firm shutting down, regulators have said that they will still pursue a probe into how the firm used – or misused – Facebook data during the 2016 US Elections and Brexit Referendum.

The social media giant says data on anywhere up to 87 million users was taken when people completed quizzes hosted on the platform. The data from these quizzes was passed on to CA, who are alleged to have used it for political campaign purposes; targeting voters with finely-catered promotional content and adverts.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss…

Court papers filed with a New York court suggest the firm had assets of up to $500,000 and debts in the region of $1-10 million. This comes after the company’s announcement on May 2nd that it was closing down and going into liquidation in both the UK and US. In a statement on the company website, CA said:

“Earlier today, SCL Elections Ltd., as well as certain of its and Cambridge Analytica LLC’s U.K. affiliates (collectively, the “Company” or “Cambridge Analytica”) filed applications to commence insolvency proceedings in the U.K.  The Company is immediately ceasing all operations and the boards have applied to appoint insolvency practitioners Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP to act as the independent administrator for Cambridge Analytica.

“Additionally, parallel bankruptcy proceedings will soon be commenced on behalf of Cambridge Analytica LLC and certain of the Company’s U.S. affiliates in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.”

The closure of the firm isn’t as straight forward as it appears, however. Several key figures at Cambridge Analytica are now involved in a new company by the name of Emerdata. According to Companies House, this new data analytics firm is headquartered at the same offices as SCL Elections and describes itself as a “data processing, hosting and related activities” business.

Jennifer and Rebekah Mercer, daughters of American billionaire Robert Mercer (the main financier of Cambridge Analytica) are directors of the firm, along with Dr Alexander Tayler (Acting CEO of Cambridge Analytica) and Alexander Nix, the former CEO of the analytics firm.

Cambridge Analytica’s change of face won’t prevent MP’s from continuing their investigation, however. Damian Collins tweeted shortly after Cambridge Analytica’s announcement that the committee would continue investigating the scandal.

Cambridge Analytica and SCL group cannot be allowed to delete their data history by closing. The investigations into their work are vital

— Damian Collins (@DamianCollins) 2 May 2018

Nix to Appear Before MP’s

Alexander Nix has accepted a summons from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and is set to appear before the committee on June 6th. After the announcement, Damian Collins said: “We are glad that Alexander Nix has accepted our summons. The committee will use the opportunity to address numerous inconsistencies in his previous evidence.

“We are disappointed that Dominic Cummings has not responded positively to our requests for him to appear. His reasoning that he must delay giving evidence due to ongoing investigations simply does not hold up, considering that Alexander Nix, Jeff Silvester and others involved have agreed to cooperate with the committee’s investigations despite currently being subject to various investigations.”

The DCMS plans on reporting Vote Leave’s Dominic Cummings after he refused to appear before MP’s on May 22nd. CA is said to have pitched Vote Leave over work in the run-up to the Brexit Referendum; another critical national vote that is said to have been influence by the nefarious actions of the analytics firm.