A British consultant, Rupert Wolfe Murray said on Wednesday as quoted by AP that prior to the 2016 general elections in Romania he had been contacted by a top official from Cambridge Analytica, the company at the center of the ongoing scandal on abusive use of Facebook data.

Rupert Wolfe MurrayFoto: Arhiva personala

The Romanian-speaking consultant told Romanian news channel Digi 24 on Wednesday night that when he asked Cambridge Analytica Political Global boss Mark Turnbull if he referred to Romania when he spoke of a successful project in an Eastern European country, Turnbull said he did not work "under Cambridge Analytica" in Romania.

When first quoted on Wednesday, Murray said that he was contacted to work for the currently ruling party in Romania, the Social Democratic Party, for the 2016 elections. He said he refused the offer.

He said that in the e-mail he received from Mark Turnbull in 2016, he categorically refused when hearing that it's about a political project for the PSD.

He said he contacted Turnbull after revelations made several days ago by Channel 4, which showed how Cambridge Analytica was running campaigns worldwide. In the Channel 4 undercover report, Turnbull suggested that CA used a different firm to run a very successful project in an Eastern European country.

Murray asked if Turnbull worked with Romania in the case, but the answer was "I did not work under Cambridge Analytica" in Romania.