Three executives of the technology company specializing in electoral processes Smartmatic, including its president, Roger Piñate, of Venezuelan origin, have been accused in Florida of having participated in an alleged bribery scheme aimed at obtaining contracts for the 2016 Philippine elections.
In addition to Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, 49, Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, a U.S. citizen, and Elie Moreno, 44, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Israel, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida indicted Juan Andres Donato Bautista, 60, who was the chairman of the Commission on Elections of the Philippines (COMELEC) in 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Smartmatic, a technology and cybersecurity company founded in 2000 and headquartered in London, provides services to electoral bodies in numerous countries such as Venezuela, where from 2004 to 2017 it provided “a 100% automated and reliable voting system,” according to its website.
Countries that have used their technology include Mexico, Germany, Canada, the United States, Kenya, Brazil, Albania, Belgium, Honduras, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Estonia, El Salvador, Norway, Italy, the Philippines, Uganda, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Bulgaria and Haiti.
In the United States, Smartmatic has filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox for defamation, for allegedly knowingly broadcasting false information linking the company to the alleged fraud in the 2020 US presidential election that was denounced without evidence by former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), now a candidate for the White House again.
According to a Department of Justice statement, between 2015 and 2018, Piñate and Vásquez, along with others, were allegedly responsible for paying at least $1 million in bribes to the then COMELEC Chairman in order to “obtain and retain business related to the supply of voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections and to secure contract payments, including exemption from payment of value-added tax.”
The Justice Department added that a fund was created to pay the bribes with money obtained from “overbilling the cost of voting machines for the 2016 Philippine elections.”
The indictment alleges that the scheme included “creating fraudulent contracts and false loan agreements to justify the transfers” and that funds were also laundered through bank accounts located in Asia, Europe and the United States.
Piñate and Vasquez are each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one substantive violation of the FCPA.
Additionally, the four defendants each face one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international money laundering.
If convicted, Piñate and Vásquez each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the FCPA charges, but both Piñate and Bautista and Moreno each face a maximum sentence of 20 years on each count of international monetary instruments laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The Philippine Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman provided substantial assistance in this case, according to the US official statement.
The winner of the 2016 presidential election in the Philippines was Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippine Democratic Party-People Power, who ruled from that year until 2022.
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2024-08-29 16:48:02
