Cambridge Analytica: British broadcaster secretly tapes 'honey-trap' claims

Kim Hjelmgaard | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Facebook accused of mishandling user data Amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

LONDON — British broadcaster Channel 4 secretly filmed the CEO of Cambridge Analytica saying his company could entrap politicians in compromising situations.

The investigation broadcast Monday night in Britain showed one exchange in which Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix said the company could "send some girls around to the candidate’s house."

Ukrainian girls, he said, "are very beautiful. I find that works very well."

The broadcast comes amid allegations that the London-based data analytics firm hired by Donald Trump's presidential campaign harvested the data of up to 50 million Facebook users without their consent.

Cambridge Analytica, in a statement Monday, denied that it or any of its affiliates "use entrapment, bribes or so-called honey-traps." It also denied any wrongdoing over the Facebook data it acquired from Cambridge University psychology professor Alex Kogan.

The television station said it filmed a series of meetings at London hotels over four months, between November and January, during which a Channel 4 reporter posed as an operative for a wealthy client hoping to get candidates elected in Sri Lanka.

In addition to Nix, other senior Cambridge Analytica executives, including Mark Turnbull, the firm's managing director, attended the meetings.

More: Facebook data of 50M users exploited by Trump data firm, say reports

Related: Facebook backlash: Failure to disclose political firm's profile access draws scrutiny

In videos of the meetings broadcast by Channel 4, Cambridge Analytica executives boasted that it and its parent, Strategic Communications Laboratories, had worked in more than 200 elections across the world, including Nigeria, Kenya, the Czech Republic, India and Argentina.

In another exchange, Turnbull described how Cambridge Analytica can discreetly publicize damaging material about a political opponent on social media and the Internet.

"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. 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?'"

More: Facebook apps may see more of your personal info than you want. Here's how to turn them off

Related: Can Facebook be trusted with your personal info? Voter harvesting scheme shows perils for users