A federal grand jury indicted executives of the voting machine company Smartmatic, along with the Philippines’ former top elections official, Thursday for participating in an “alleged bribery and money laundering scheme.” Smartmatic is currently suing conservative media outlets over their 2020 election reporting.
Roger Piñate and Jorge Vasquez are accused of taking part in a scheme that involved laundering money and paying $1 million in bribes to Juan Andres Bautista, former chair of the Philippines Commission on Elections, from 2015 to 2018, according to a Department of Justice press release.
The “co-conspirators” allegedly bribed Bautista to “obtain and retain business related to providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections and to secure payments on the contracts,” according to the release. They allegedly “laundered funds” through banks on three continents, including in the Southern District of Florida, where Piñate and Vasquez reside.
The release did not mention Smartmatic by name, but said the indictment targeted “three executives” of an “election voting machine” company. Piñate is president and co-founder of Smartmatic and Vásquez worked as an executive. Elie Moreno, who was Smartmatic’s Philippines general manager, is also charged in the indictment.
All four individuals are charged with “one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments,” the release said. If convicted, they could each face a maximum sentence of 20 years for each charge.
Additionally, Piñate and Vasquez are each charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiring
