The self-proclaimed Cyber Ninjas behind the fake audit of the 2020 election results in Arizona's Maricopa County are leaving the scene. The firm claims it has dissolved and all of its staff have been fired, in what looks like a desperate attempt to avoid paying $50,000 a day for disobeying a court order.
Cyber Ninjas is shutting down. Rod Thomson, a representative for the political firm, told NBC News that all employees had been let go. Thomson blamed $2 million debt from the Arizona audit and endless legal and character attacks on the company in a statement to CNN.
Cyber Ninjas was unknown before last year. The company was hired by the GOP delegation to the Arizona Senate to audit ballots in the populous county because of the conspiracy theories that Donald Trump lost the 2020 elections due to voter fraud. Republicans were trying to retroactively wish a sinister plot into existence, and the vote count was already certified.
Even though Cyber Ninjas were run by a man who was known as a "Stop the Steal" enthusiast, they continued to pursue any leads that came their way. They scanned ballots for fake UV watermarks, looked at them under microscopes, and searched for Chinese bamboo, all in the name of proving fraud. They wasted over $9 million, including state funds and donors, in the process. Joe Biden was re-affirmed as the winner of Maricopa County by the final report.
Cyber Ninja's incompetence and failure to understand Arizona election law resulted in 76 of the allegations being mistakes or misunderstandings, according to a report released this week by local election officials. The rebuttal was released as Cyber Ninjas was facing a lawsuit that was trying to force the company to release internal text messages, emails, and other records about the audit. Even though the court has ordered them to release anything, Cyber Ninjas insists that it is not subject to public records law and does not need to.
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that a very fed-up Judge John Hannah ordered Cyber Ninjas to immediately release the records or pay $50,000 a day in fines.
Cyber Ninjas thought dissolving itself was a clever trick that would allow it to continue to evade records requests. Jack Wilenchik, a lawyer for the company, told the Post that it can no longer search for records since no staff are left. According to the Associated Press, Hannah said that the argument won't work as he has seen no evidence that Cyber Ninjas is out of money.
Hannah said that the court will not accept the assertion that Cyber Ninjas is an empty shell and that no one is responsible for seeing that it complies.
It is not clear how many employees Cyber Ninjas actually had in the first place. Only three people are listed as employees on the company's website as of Friday afternoon. CNN has previously reported that there is no evidence that the firm employs anyone. The company's automated voice messaging system directed all calls to its departments of sales, purchasing, and human resources to the voice mailbox, as well as the line for general inquiries. CNN found that the address for its legal department was a rented mailbox in Florida, where the person who lives there is. Despite paying off a mortgage and getting forgiveness for a federal loan, the man is still in debt.
In theory, Wilenchik should be the last person still being paid by the company. He wants the court to let him quit the case because Cyber Ninjas haven't paid their legal bills.
A request for comment from Gizmodo was not returned. If we hear back, we will update this piece. ronin, who were basically a samurai during the Japanese feudal period, but were also known as ninjas, are completely different from ninjas, but feel free to complain in the comments below.
