Trump-linked data firm met with Russian executives: report

Cambridge Analytica, the data firm the Trump campaign used during the 2016 election, met with Russian business executives, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The firms’ employees had been in contact with executives from Russian oil giant Lukoil in 2014 and 2015, according to company documents. 

There were reportedly three meetings with Lukoil executives in London and Turkey and Lukoil was interested in how data was used to target American voters. 

{mosads} Alexander Nix, director of SCL Group, denied at a British Parliament meeting last month that his consulting firm ever worked with Russia. 

SCL Group is a British political and defense contractor that owns the American offshoot Cambridge Analytica. 

Both SCL Group and Lukoil deny the meetings were political in nature and SCL denied that there were ever meetings held in London, the New York Times reported. 

It was also reported Saturday that Cambridge Analytics obtained private information of more than 50 million people without their permission to use strategically for President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. 

Facebook suspended the firm on Friday for not fully deleting data given to them by Aleksandr Kogan, a University of Cambridge professor.