Cambridge Analytica announced it was shutting down after officials were filmed describing its dominant role in Kenyan election campaigns in 2013 and 2017.
The firm which was at the heart of the Facebook data scandal announced it was "immediately ceasing all operations" and filing for insolvency in Britain and the United States.
It however, vehemently denied exploiting Facebook users' data for the election campaigns of US President Donald Trump following revelations it gathered profile information via a personality prediction app.
Facebook admitted that up to 87 million users may have had their data hijacked by the firm but CA claimed it deleted data about Facebook users obtained in breach of the social network's terms of service.
[caption caption="Laptops in empty Cambridge Analytica office"]
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The Managing Director of Cambridge Analytica Political Global Mark Turnbull was filmed speaking on the Kenyan election stating: "We have rebranded the entire party twice, written their manifesto, done two rounds of 50,000 (participant) surveys."
Turnbull added: "Then we'd write all the speeches and we'd stage the whole thing — so just about every element of his campaign."
An undercover operation caught senior executives boasting about psychological manipulation, entrapment techniques and fake news campaigns.
CA is alleged to have used data gathered from Facebook users via a third party app to influence votes however the firm stated that it was "committed to being responsible, fair and secure with data."
The company's website described its work in Kenya in 2013 as "the largest political research project ever conducted in East Africa," which enabled the crafting of a campaign "based on the electorate's real needs (jobs) and fears (tribal violence)."
[caption caption="Cambridge Analytica offices"]
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Noting its financial condition was precarious, it added: "Cambridge Analytica intends to fully meet its obligations to its employees, including with respect to notice periods, severance terms, and redundancy entitlements."
