A federal grand jury in Miami has indicted Roger Pinate, the co-founder of a voting machine company, for allegedly paying over $1 million in bribes to officials in the Philippines in exchange for contracts to oversee the nation’s elections approximately ten years ago. The Justice Department stated on Thursday that Pinate and a colleague at Smartmatic, based in Boca Raton, Florida, allegedly funneled bribes to the chairman of the Philippines’ electoral commission through a slush fund created by inflating the cost of each voting machine provided to authorities between 2015 and 2018.
To conceal the illicit payments to the former chairman of the Commission on Elections in the Philippines, Juan Donato, the co-conspirators purportedly used coded language to discuss the slush fund and fabricated sham loan agreements to justify transfers to bank accounts in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Following these allegations, Smartmatic announced that it had placed the two employees on immediate leaves of absence.
Although the company emphasized that no voter fraud allegations have been raised against it, and it has not been indicted, it underscored the importance of conducting elections worldwide with integrity and transparency. Pinate, a co-founder of Smartmatic, initially gained success through contracts from Hugo Chavez’s government in Venezuela, which was an early adopter of electronic voting systems. Smartmatic has since operated in 25 countries, assisting with elections spanning from Argentina to Zambia and numerous European nations.
Pinate and Jorge Miguel Vasquez have been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. Both individuals reside in south Florida. In addition to the corruption charges, they, along with Elie Moreno, face several money laundering charges that could result in a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Furthermore, Smartmatic has been involved in legal disputes with media outlets, including Fox News, over the spreading of false claims about the company’s software disrupting the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Despite ongoing legal battles, Smartmatic’s efforts to address these allegations continue as it navigates through various legal disputes.