- The Cyber Ninjas, the Florida firm behind the Maricopa County audit of the 2020 election results, is closing.
- The Cyber Ninjas' lawyer, as well as a company spokesperson, said the company is letting all its employees go.
- An Arizona judge said the Cyber Ninjas would be fined $50,000 a day starting Friday for not handing over materials related to the audit.
The Cyber Ninjas, the Florida company behind the vote count audit in Maricopa County, is shuttering and letting all its staff go.
The news comes as the Cyber Ninjas face staggering daily fines for their refusal to turn over public records related to the 2021 audit of the vote count in Maricopa County.
A judge in Arizona said on Thursday that the Cyber Ninjas will be fined $50,000 a day if they do not immediately turn over the records, per the Associated Press. This is after the Cyber Ninjas and the Republican-led state Senate failed to hand over documents related to the GOP-led review of the ballots cast in the county during the 2020 election.
Cyber Ninjas' lawyer Jack Wilenchik told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah the company is insolvent, has fired all employees including CEO Doug Logan, and can no longer afford to go through records to find information related to the audit.
"The court is not going to accept the assertion that Cyber Ninjas is an empty shell and that no one is responsible for seeing that it complies," Judge Hannah told Wilenchik, according to the AP. Hannah said the fines will begin to stack up starting Friday and may be applied to individuals as well, not just the company.
Wilenchik has asked to withdraw from the case because he said he hadn't been paid.
A spokesperson from the company told Jen Fifield, a reporter for The Arizona Republic, that the attorneys for the Cyber Ninjas were referring to Logan as a "former CEO" because the company was closing.
"All employees have been let go and the company is being closed," the spokesperson told Fifield.
Insider received an automated response from CEO Doug Logan's mailbox on Thursday night, which read: "Cyber Ninjas has gone out-of-business and is no longer taking on new work. This mailbox is periodically being monitored while the business is officially closed."
The Cyber Ninjas made headlines in the summer of 2021 when they embarked on an audit of the vote count in Arizona's Maricopa County.
During the audit, it was also revealed that Logan — a "Stop the Steal" supporter who has been known to tout election conspiracy theories, particularly those in favor of former President Donald Trump — starred in an election conspiracy theory film alleging the CIA was behind election misinformation.
However, the audit of the vote count in Maricopa County released in September confirmed that President Joe Biden won the election and resulted in former President Donald Trump losing 261 votes. Arizona GOP officials also testified in Congress in October that Biden won free, fair, and accurate elections in Maricopa County, calling lawmakers who are unwilling to accept the results a "threat to our democracy."
At press time, the Cyber Ninjas website was still up and running, with the company still offering its services from "ethical hacking" to "general consulting."
It is unclear how many employees the Cyber Ninjas has on its payroll, though LinkedIn lists its company size as between two and 10 employees. The Cyber Ninjas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
