Brexit campaign illegal funding came from Cambridge Analytica

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• Brexit campaign's use of company linked to Cambridge Analytica ...

  www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-27/whistleblower-questions-brexit-result/9591638

  6 mins ago - With just a year until Britain is due to leave the European Union, two whistleblowers — one from the British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica and one from the Vote Leave group — have alleged Brexit campaigners funded their campaign illegally. The whistleblowers' law firm presented 53 pages of ...

  Staff claim Cambridge Analytica ignored US ban on foreigners ...

  https://www.theguardian.com/.../cambridge-analytica-non-american-employees-politic...

  Mar 17, 2018 - In the 2014 midterm elections and the Trump campaign, firm was staffed mainly by young Britons and Canadians.

  Cambridge Analytica - The Guardian

  https://www.theguardian.com/news/.../cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-electi...

  Mar 17, 2018 - The data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump's election team and the winningBrexit campaign harvested millions of Facebook profiles of US voters, in one of the tech giant's biggest ever data breaches, and used them to build a powerful software program to predict and influence choices at the ...
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  Brexit campaign's use of company linked to Cambridge Analytica skirted finance rules, whistleblowers say

  Updated 6 minutes ago

  PHOTO: Brexit campaigners are accused of funding their campaigns illegally. (Reuters: Tolga Akmen)

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  Two whistleblowers at the heart of the Facebook data scandal have questioned the result of Britain's 2016 Brexit referendum as their lawyers presented evidence they say shows the main campaign for leaving the EU had broken the law.

  Key points:

  • Whistleblowers' lawyers have claimed Vote Leave group circumvented spending limits
  • They have also linked the pro-Brexit campaigners to Cambridge Analytica
  • Vote Leave officials have denied the accusations, calling it a smear campaign

  With just a year until Britain is due to leave the European Union, two whistleblowers — one from the British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica and one from the Vote Leave group — have alleged Brexit campaigners funded their campaign illegally.

  The whistleblowers' law firm presented 53 pages of documents that they said proved the official Brexit campaign group Vote Leave circumvented spending limits by donating 625,000 pounds ($1 million) to the pro-Brexit student group BeLeave.

  They also alleged the pro-Brexit campaign organisation channelled the money to digital services firm AggregateIQ.

  The firm has long-term links to Cambridge Analytica, which has been accused of misusing Facebook data to help Donald Trump win the 2016 US presidential election, the whistleblowers said at a press club event in London.

  Vote Leave denied the accusations, while Canada-based AggregateIQ said it has never been part of Cambridge Analytica and has never signed a contract with the company.

  'Can we be confident in the result of the referendum?'

  Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.

   

  VIDEO: A former Cambridge Analytica employee says the firm used "information dominance" to spread fake news (ABC News)

  But whistleblower Christopher Wylie, formerly of Cambridge Analytica, told the Observer he was instrumental in the foundation of AggregateIQ, when he was the research director of SCL, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.

  He said they shared underlying technology and worked so closely together that Cambridge Analytica staff often referred to the Canadian firm as a department.

  "This is not refighting the referendum … This is about the integrity of the democratic process," Mr Wylie said on his motivation behind pursuing this case.

  "Can we be confident in the result of the referendum?"

  Is Trump involved?

  
  A former Cambridge Analytica employee says Facebook data was used by the firm as part of Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

  Vote Leave's former chief executive Mathew Eliott said the Electoral Commission had twice looked into Vote Leave's relationship with BeLeave and had cleared it both times.

  He said he was confident that the third investigation would produce the same result.

  "The basis of all this is an attempt by people on the 'Remain' campaign to call into doubt the result of the EU referendum," Mr Elliott said.

  Britain's Electoral Commission said it would not comment on active investigations, but it acknowledged a number of open inquiries related to the EU referendum.
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