Philippine bribery, money laundering scheme: Smartmatic executives face charges

A co-founder of Smartmatic, a voting machine company, has been indicted by federal prosecutors for participating in a bribery and money laundering scheme in the Philippines.

On Thursday, the Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury indicted two men, including a Venezuelan citizen living in Florida, for allegedly bribing a former chairman of the Commission on Elections in the Philippines between 2015 and 2018.

The DOJ claims that these bribes were allegedly paid to secure business related to providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections and to obtain and retain payments on the contracts, including the release of value added tax payments.

"The co-conspirators allegedly funded bribes through a slush fund created by over-invoicing the cost of voting machines for the 2016 Philippine elections. To hide the nature and purpose of the corrupt payments, the co-conspirators used coded language and created fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers."

The Philippine government signed contracts worth $182 million for services related to the sale or lease of approximately 90,000 electronic voting machines, as reported by Planet Chronicle senior national correspondent William La Jeunesse on Friday.

The executives accused of wrongdoing inflated the cost of voting machines for the May 2016 Philippine elections and used some of the extra funds to pay bribes to Bautista, the indictment claims.

The Justice Department announced that Piñate and Vasquez are charged with one count of conspiring to violate the FCPA and one count of violating the FCPA, while Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez, and Elie Moreno are charged with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

The DOJ stated that if convicted, Piñate and Vasquez could receive a maximum of five years in prison for FCPA and conspiracy to violate the FCPA counts. Additionally, all four defendants, including Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez, and Moreno, could face a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count of international laundering of monetary instruments and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

"Smartmatic has stated that two of its employees have been indicted for alleged violations of the FCPA in the Philippines almost 10 years ago. Despite the allegations, the accused employees remain innocent until proven guilty. Smartmatic has 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."