Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix, who was suspended Tuesday pending an investigation into his conduct, reportedly used racist slurs in an internal company email, The Times of London reports.
According to the report, published Wednesday, Nix referred to two potential clients, both of whom were black, as “n—–s”; neither the identities of the individuals nor the recipients of the email were disclosed.
Nix was suspended on Tuesday after Britain’s Channel 4 published a video in which he was seen bragging to an undercover reporter that Cambridge Analytica has used bribes and sex workers to entrap politicians on behalf of the company’s clients.
“Mr. Nix’s recent comments… do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation,” the company said in a statement after the video was made public.
Nix’s comments came to light amid a separate controversy this week regarding Cambridge Analytica’s role in Facebook’s massive data leak.
The firm paid a University of Cambridge professor for information on 50 million unwitting Facebook users. The New York Times wrote on Saturday that Cambridge Analytica used the data to target voters during the 2014 U.S. midterm elections, and during the 2016 Presidential election on behalf of the Trump campaign.
According to the Times, Cambridge Analytica also received a $15 million investment from Republican donor Robert Mercer in 2014, and that it “wooed” his political adviser Steve Bannon, the ex-executive chairman of Breitbart News, who later served as Donald Trump’s chief White House strategist until being fired in the summer of 2017.
Cambridge Analytica has since been suspended by Facebook.