The real reason Cambridge Analytica just filed for bankruptcy

Sometimes the punchlines just write themselves. The Donald Trump campaign relied heavily on a voter data firm called Cambridge Analytica during the election, but as the firm has gotten into ever-deeper legal trouble, the campaign has tried to further distance itself from the firm. Cambridge Analytica just filed for bankruptcy. So, the punchline goes, now we know it’s a Donald Trump entity. But the reality is that this “bankruptcy” is something other than what it seems.

Cambridge Analytica was only ever a shell company for a voter data operation funded by Donald Trump’s billionaire backers, Robert and Rebekah Mercer. After investigators on three continents began breathing down the firm’s neck, its principals formed a new and nearly identical shell company with a different name. Now they’re trying to create the appearance that Cambridge Analytica has died, in the hope of making the scandals go away. It won’t work.

Facebook has already ratted out Cambridge Analytica for having stolen user data from fifty million Facebook users during the election cycle, prompting investigations into how it was using that data to cheat during the election. The firm was in contact with Russian puppet WikiLeaks during the election, raising questions about whether it was working with the voter registration data that Russian hackers stole. The former CEO of Cambridge Analytica has also been caught on tape discussing bribery and blackmail tactics to win elections.

We’ll see if the public and the media forget about Cambridge Analytica now that it’s gone “bankrupt.” But federal investigators won’t forget. And we’ll be keeping an eye on every move that the Mercers’ new data firm makes. Donald Trump’s bankruptcies won’t save him from having to answer for the financial crimes that he was committing with those priorities. Cambridge Analytica can’t hide either.