A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida indicted the founder and president of voting machine company Smartmatic, Roger Piñate, on Thursday for his alleged role in a bribery and money laundering scheme related to the 2016 Philippine elections.
In addition to Piñate, the Florida federal grand jury indicted two other “executives of an election voting machine and service provider company” and a former chairman of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections (COMELEC).
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Piñate, a 49-year-old Venezuelan citizen who resides in Boca Raton, Florida, and 62-year-old U.S. citizen Jorge Miguel Vasquez, who resides in Davie, Florida, were allegedly involved in at least $1 million in bribes together with others paid to former COMELEC Chairman Juan Andres Donato Bautista.
The bribes were allegedly paid to obtain and retain business related to the provision of voting machines and election services for the Philippines 2016 elections and “to secure payments on the contracts, including the release of value added tax payments.”
Outsider candidate Rodrigo Duterte, the then-mayor of Davao City, won the 2016 presidential election. That race also saw Philippine boxing great Manny Pacquiao win a seat in the Senate that he would later leverage to make an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 2022.
The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations’ El Dorado Task Force Miami in assistance with the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Miami.
“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,” the Dept. of Justice stated. “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 press release continued.
According to Smartmatic’s website, Piñate, the company’s president, “played a critical role in planning and executing the world’s largest election using optical scanners (in the Philippines) and in Smartmatic winning the largest election contract in U.S. history (in Los Angeles).”
Smartmatic stated that it joined efforts with COMELEC to deploy 92,509 Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) during the 2016 Philippine general elections.
Piñate and Vasquez were each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one substantive violation of the FCPA. The Department of Justice also informed that Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez, and 44-year-old Venezuelan-Israeli citizen Elie Moreno were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.
If Piñate and Vasquez are convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the FCPA and conspiracy to violate the FCPA counts, while Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez, and Moreno each face a maximum penalty of 20 years for each count of international laundering of monetary instruments and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Smartmatic responded to the announcement of the indictments in a statement published on social media late Thursday evening, informing that, “regardless of the veracity of the allegations,” it had immediately placed two of its employees under leaves of absence.
“No voter fraud has been alleged and Smartmatic is not indicted,” the message read. “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.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.