A federal grand jury indicted executives of the voting machine company Smartmatic, along with the Philippines’ former top elections official, Thursday for participating in an “alleged bribery and money laundering scheme.” Smartmatic is currently suing conservative media outlets over their 2020 election reporting.
Roger Piñate and Jorge Vasquez are accused of taking part in a scheme that involved laundering money and paying $1 million in bribes to Juan Andres Bautista, former chair of the Philippines Commission on Elections, from 2015 to 2018, according to a Department of Justice press release.
The “co-conspirators” allegedly bribed Bautista to “obtain and retain business related to providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections and to secure payments on the contracts,” according to the release. They allegedly “laundered funds” through banks on three continents, including in the Southern District of Florida, where Piñate and Vasquez reside.
The release did not mention Smartmatic by name, but said the indictment targeted “three executives” of an “election voting machine” company. Piñate is president and co-founder of Smartmatic and Vásquez worked as an executive. Elie Moreno, who was Smartmatic’s Philippines general manager, is also charged in the indictment.
All four individuals are charged with “one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments,” the release said. If convicted, they could each face a maximum sentence of 20 years for each charge.
Additionally, Piñate and Vasquez are each charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiring to violate the act, according to the release. The FCPA bans American citizens and companies from paying foreign officials for “obtaining or retaining” their business. They could each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for these charges.
Smartmatic posted a statement on X that said “two” employees had been indicted on FCPA charges, without mentioning that one was Piñate, the company’s president.
“While our accused employees remain innocent until proven guilty, we have placed both employees on leaves of absence, effective immediately,” reads Smartmatic’s statement, posted Thursday. “No voter fraud has been alleged and Smartmatic is not indicted.”
The El Dorado Task Force Miami, of the DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations, is investigating the case, according to the release. The IRS’ Criminal Investigation Miami is assisting.
The Philippines Commission on Elections banned Smartmatic from “bidding on election contracts” in the country in 2023, but a court overturned the ban earlier this year, according to Barron’s. Smartmatic celebrated the decision as “fair,” claiming the court had “vindicated” the company.
The DOJ filed money laundering charges against Bautista last fall, implicating four Smartmatic executives as “co-conspirators,” according to CNN.
Smartmatic executives allegedly used “slush funds,” false email accounts, and code words, referring to money as “salsa,” CNN reported. The original court filing claimed they “caused or attempted” to funnel $4 million to Bautista, who agreed to $199 million in contracts with Smartmatic for servicing the Philippines’ 2016 election.
The Federalist reached out to Smartmatic for comment, but the company did not respond in time for publication.
Domestic Issues
Smartmatic is suing Fox News and Newsmax for defamation following the 2020 election, according to The Washington Post. As The Federalist previously reported, the suit is financially backed by none other than billionaire LinkedIn co-founder and top Democrat donor Reid Hoffman.
Hoffman is investing millions in Smartmatic. He said this is to help keep the company afloat, as its legal fight against election reporting has proven expensive.
“Smartmatic became a target of the defamatory campaign to overturn [Trump’s] defeat,” Hoffman claimed to The Washington Post.
Fox and Newsmax hosted commentators who aired concerns that tabulators were not secure and had possibly changed Trump votes to Biden votes. Smartmatic alleges that hosting these discussions constituted defamation. Fox settled a suit with Dominion Voting last year over similar allegations.
Some news reports raised well-founded tabulator concerns. Tabulator software in Antrim County, Michigan glitched in November 2020, counting 6,000 Republican votes as Democrat.
Fox had long expressed concerns that there was a deep-pocketed “third party” behind the lawsuit, but Smartmatic denied this in 2023, according to Reuters.
“We look forward to defending our case in court,” a Fox spokeswoman told The Federalist.
Hoffman adviser Dmitri Mehlhorn admitted the billionaire saw lawfare as an “important part of the battle to protect America from MAGA.”
Just days before the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Hoffman allegedly said he wished he had made Trump an “actual martyr.” And soon after the attempt on Trump’s life, Mehlhorn sent out a memo suggesting the shooting which killed one rallygoer might have been “staged.”
Smartmatic is a “founding member” of the Department of Homeland Security-sponsored Elections Infrastructure Subsector Coordinating Council (SCC), which partners with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the government’s online censorship hub. The council brought together groups like Smartmatic, Dominion, and ERIC — a multi-state elections database that collects voter data — to coordinate ahead of the 2020 election.
Business Abroad
Smartmatic was a “little-known firm” with “no experience in voting technology” before 2004, according to The New York Times.
But that year, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez’s government selected Smartmatic to “replace the country’s election machinery” and paid hundreds of thousands to a closely-connected company. This happened just before the unsuccessful recall which left Chávez in power. According to the Times, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States investigated Smartmatic in 2006 for ties to the Chávez government, which both Smartmatic and Venezuela denied.
Smartmatic provided voting services to Venezuela from 2004 to 2017, after which it stopped doing business there when the socialist government’s “official” results differed from those of the company’s machines.
Piñate and Moreno are Venezuelan citizens, according to the release. Smartmatic co-founder and CEO Antonio Mugica is also Venezuelan. As of 2021, the Mugica and Piñate families owned a majority of the company’s shares.
Mugica, Piñate, and Vasquez worked together on the “invention, design, development and manufacturing processes” of Smartmatic devices, according to the company’s website.
Smartmatic works in foreign countries including Argentina, Belgium, England, and the Philippines, according to its website. Piñate has overseen projects in America, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
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