A federal grand jury in Florida has indicted three executives of a Smartmatic election voting machine company and a former Philippine elections official.
They are accused of participating in a bribery and money laundering scheme to secure business related to the 2016 Philippine elections.
The indictment alleges that between 2015 and 2018, Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez and Jorge Miguel Vasquez, along with others, orchestrated the payment of at least $1 million in bribes to Juan Andres Donato Bautista, the former Chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Philippines.
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The bribes were allegedly paid to obtain and retain contracts for providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 elections.
The co-conspirators are accused of funding the bribes through a slush fund created by over-invoicing the cost of voting machines.
They used coded language and created fraudulent contracts to conceal the corrupt payments. The funds were then allegedly laundered through bank accounts in Asia, Europe, and the United States.
The charges include conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), FCPA violations, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and international money laundering. If convicted, the defendants could face significant prison sentences.
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Although the new indictment isn’t directly related to the 2020 election, it is already influencing the ongoing defamation lawsuits that Smartmatic has filed against conservative media outlets that claim its software rigged the 2020 U.S. election.
Fox News and Newsmax are both facing defamation suits from Smartmatic.
“Smartmatic has learned that two of our employees have been indicted for alleged violations of the FCPA in the Philippines almost 10 years ago. 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 said in a statement.
The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and IRS Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and Philippine authorities.
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