Research 2000 Pays to Settle 'Fabricated Data' Lawsuit

US polling firm Research 2000 is to pay 'several thousand dollars' to political weblog The Daily Kos to settle a lawsuit in which it was claimed that some or all of the research the agency conducted for the site was 'fabricated or manipulated beyond recognition'.

The Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas (pictured) filed the suit last June, after claiming that a report conducted by three statistical analysts found that the Research 2000 data produced trends that were 'too smooth and consistent' to be believable. Additionally, Moulitsas claimed that the polling firm had refused to provide him with the raw data that the poll results were based on.

At the time, Moulitsas stated: 'We were defrauded by Research 2000, and while we don't know if some or all of the data was fabricated or manipulated beyond recognition, we know we can't trust it. Meanwhile, Research 2000 has refused to offer any explanation.'

The settlement agreement was reached last November, but according to a report in the Huffington Post, Research 2000 President Del Ali has only recently made an initial payment of $9,000 to Moulitsas. Ali has confirmed he will be making two additional payments in June.

The Research 2000 web site has been re-directing to a Wikipedia entry about opinion polls since last July.