Cyber Ninjas shutting down after judge fines Arizona audit company $50K a day

Cyber Ninjas, a firm hired by the Arizona state Senate to conduct a review of Maricopa County's election results, on Thursday announced that it is shutting down after a county government report slammed the firm and a judge ordered it to pay $50,000 a day in fines.

Sam Levine, a reporter for The Guardian, first reported the news of Cyber Ninjas closing down on Thursday, tweeting that CEO "Doug Logan and the rest of the employees have been let go and Cyber Ninjas is being shut down."

The news followed a Thursday order that Cyber Ninjas turn over public records to The Arizona Republic, including emails and text messages, to comply with an August ruling - or face $50,000 in fines per day.

The firm was hired to conduct an audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County following former President Trump's claims the election was stolen from him. Arizona was a swing state that Biden won narrowly.

Cyber Ninjas, which says it recounted 2.1 million ballots, confirmed Biden beat Trump in the state but claimed in its September draft report that thousands of ballots had issues, including duplicate ballots, voters who cast ballots multiple times and unregistered voters participating in the election.

Maricopa County released a report this month, arguing Cyber Ninjas made 22 misleading claims, 41 inaccurate claims and 13 claims that were false.

The county said Cyber Ninjas "made faulty and inaccurate conclusions about more than 53,000 ballots in 22 different categories."

"An empty piñata is a pretty accurate description of the 'audit' as a whole," the county tweeted Thursday.