A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on Thursday indicted Roger Piñate, founder and president of voting-machine maker Smartmatic, on charges of participating in a bribery and money laundering scheme connected to the 2016 Philippine elections.
In addition to Piñate, a federal grand jury in Florida indicted two other “executives of voting machine and service providers” and the former chairman of the Philippine Election Commission (COMELEC).
be press release According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Piñate, a 49-year-old Venezuelan who lives in Boca Raton, Florida, and Jorge Miguel Vásquez, a 62-year-old American who lives in Davie, Florida, are suspected of, among others, paying at least $1 million in bribes 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 2016 Philippine elections and “to secure payment for contracts, including the payment of value-added tax.”
Rodrigo Duterte, the outsider candidate who was mayor of Davao City, Winner The 2016 presidential election. In this election, Philippine boxing giant Manny Pacquiao also win He used his position as a senator to later run for president in 2022, but lost.
This case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations’ El Dorado Task Force Miami, with assistance from the IRS Miami Criminal Investigation Division.
“The conspirators allegedly paid the bribes through slush funds created by overcharging the cost per voting machine for the 2016 Philippine elections,” the Justice Department said. “To conceal and disguise the nature and purpose of their corrupt payments, the conspirators used coded language to describe the slush funds and entered into fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify the transfers.”
“The 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 Website“Smartmatic played a key role in planning and executing the world’s largest election using optical scanners (Philippines) and in helping win the largest election contract in U.S. history (Los Angeles),” said Piñate, the company’s president.
Smartmatic stated The company worked with COMELEC to deploy 92,509 Vote Tabulating Machines (VCMs) during the 2016 Philippine general elections.
Piñate and Vázquez were each indicted on one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one count of substantively violating the FCPA. The Department of Justice also announced that Bautista, Piñate, Vázquez, and Elie Moreno, a 44-year-old Venezuelan-Israeli national, were each indicted on one count of money laundering conspiracy and three counts of international financial instruments laundering.
If convicted, Piñate and Vásquez each face a maximum prison sentence of five years for the FCPA and conspiracy to violate the FCPA charges, while Bautista, Piñate, Vásquez and Moreno each face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for the international money laundering and money laundering conspiracy charges.
In response to the announcement of the indictment, Smartmatic said: statement Published The company announced on social media late Thursday night that it had placed the two employees on administrative leave, effective immediately, “regardless of the veracity of the allegations.”
“There have been no allegations of voter fraud and Smartmatic has not been charged,” the message said. “Voters around the world should be confident that the elections they participate in are conducted with the utmost integrity and transparency – values to which Smartmatic is committed.”
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
