Voting machine executives charged with bribing foreign officials
Two executives from multinational voting machine provider Smartmatic were indicted Thursday for bribing a Filipino official to renew their contracts.
Voting machines used for bribery and money-laundering
Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez and Jorge Miguel Vasquez are being accused of funneling $1 million in bribes to Juan Andres Donato Bautista when he served as chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Republic of the Philippines between 2015 and 2017. The alleged purpose of the bribe was to secure contracts for Smartmatic to provide machines and services for the country’s 2016 election. They were assisted by Elie Moreno, a Venezuelan and Israeli national who reportedly managed Smarmatic’s relations with the Philippine government.
According to a Department of Justice press release, the executives used the machines themselves for the bribe:
The co-conspirators allegedly funded the bribes through a slush fund that was created by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine for the 2016 Philippine elections. To conceal and disguise the nature and purpose of the corrupt payments, the co-conspirators used coded language to refer to the slush fund and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers. The co-conspirators then allegedly laundered funds related to the bribery scheme through bank accounts located in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including in the Southern District of Florida.
The Republic of the Philippines paid Smartmatic $182 million for the sale or service of 90,000 machines, Fox News reported.
Vasquez and Pinate, who co-founded Smartmatic, have been charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and conspiracy to violate the FCPA. They, along with Moreno and Bautista, have each been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts each of international laundering of monetary instruments. Each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.
Smartmatic: All elections are conducted with ‘integrity and transparency’
In a statement following the indictment, Smartmatic said it placed the two executives on leave and insisted that all elections are reliable.
"Smartmatic has learned that two of our employees have been indicted for alleged violations of the FCPA in the Philippines almost 10 years ago," the Florida-based company said. "Regardless of the veracity of the allegations and while our accused employees remain innocent until proven guilty, we have placed both employees on leaves of absence, effective immediately. No voter fraud has been alleged and Smartmatic is not indicted. Voters worldwide must be assured that the elections they participate in are conducted with the utmost integrity and transparency. These are the values that Smartmatic lives by."
Smartmatic has sued both Fox News and One America News for suggesting its machines contributed to fraud in the 2020 US presidential election.
Ties to Venezuela
The company has come under scrutiny for its strong ties to Venezuela, which remains under the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro. In addition to both Moreno and Smartmatic co-founder Pinate being of Venezuelan nationality, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez had been married to Smartmatic co-founder Alfredo Jose Anzola before he died in a 2008 plane crash.
