Smartmatic’s founder, Roger Piñate, and two other officials have been arrested in the Philippines for bribing election officials to secure contracts for their voting machines. Smartmatic’s interference in US and Indian elections was exposed by GreatGameInternational investigations in 2020 itself. The company is accused of laundering money through fake invoices and secret funds to cover up the bribes. As the investigation unfolds, questions are rising about the integrity of elections where Smartmatic’s software was used.
The man who started Smartmatic, a company known for its high-tech voting machines used worldwide, and two of his associates were hit with serious legal trouble on Thursday. They’re accused of bribing officials to get election contracts in the Philippines.
Roger Piñate, 49, from Boca Raton, Florida, and Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, from Davie, were charged with paying $1 million in bribes to Juan Andres Donato Bautista, who used to be the head of the Philippines’ election commission. This money was allegedly given to secure and keep contracts for voting machines and election services for the 2016 elections, and to ensure payment of taxes tied to these contracts.
The indictment claims that to cover up their scheme, Piñate, Vasquez, and their partners overcharged for the voting machines. They used secret codes and fake documents to disguise the bribes as legitimate transactions. They then moved the money through bank accounts in different countries, including the U.S., to make the scheme look clean.
Besides Piñate and Vasquez, Elie Moreno, a 44-year-old with dual citizenship in Venezuela and Israel, is also charged. All three face serious charges including conspiracy to launder money and international money laundering. If found guilty, they could each get up to 20 years in prison for each charge.
Smartmatic was founded in 2000 by Piñate, Antonio Mugica, and Alfredo José Anzola. It gained attention when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez chose them to update the country’s voting machines in 2004. The company later bought Sequoia Voting Systems but eventually sold it off.
Smartmatic has responded to the charges, saying that while two of their employees are accused of breaking the law almost a decade ago, the company itself isn’t being accused of any wrongdoing. They’ve put the accused employees on leave and reassured the public that their election services are trustworthy and transparent.
Did you know the voting machine company Smartmatic accused of vote switching and foreign interference in 2020 US Elections is also accused of smuggling biometric census database of Indians to Taiwan to create a parallel database for rigging Indian Elections through their voting machines?
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