President Of Smartmatic Indicted On $1 Million Bribery, Money Laundering Charges

The founder and president of Smartmatic - the company whose voting machines and software are 'trusted' around the world to provide secure elections - was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday along with two other company officials on charges involving a bribery and money-laundering scheme used to secure elections contracts in the Philippines.

Roger Piñate, 49, of Boca Ratón Florida, along with Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, of Davie, were among those charged over the alleged payment of $1 million in bribes to the former chairman of the Philippines Commission on Elections, Juan Andres Donato Bautista.

"These bribes were allegedly paid 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, including the release of value added tax payments," according to a press release from the US Department of Justice.

According to the indictment, the alleged co-conspirators financed the bribes by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine used in the elections. To hide their crime, prosecutors say they used coded language to refer to a slush fund used to make the illicit payments - causing the creation of fraudulent contracts and fake loan agreements to make the transfers appear legitimate.

The defendants then allegedly laundered the funds related to the bribery scheme via a constellation of international bank accounts in Asia, Europe and the United States - including in the Southern District of Florida.

Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez, and Elie Moreno, 44, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Israel, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

If convicted, Bautista, Pinate, Vasquez and Moreno each face a maximum penalty of 20 years for each count of international laundering of monetary instruments and conspiracy to commit money laundering. -Miami Herald

Smartmatic was founded in 2000 by Piñate, Antonio Mugica and Alfredo José Anzola - making international headlines after Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez chose the company to replace the country's voting machines in 2004. In 2006, they acquired Sequoia Voting Systems - though later divested its stake.

According to Smartmatic's website, Piñate "played a critical role in planning and executing the world’s largest election using optical scanners (in the Philippines) and in Smartmatic winning the largest election contract in US history (in Los Angeles)."

The company responded to the indictment Thursday night, saying in a statement "Smartmatic has learned that two of our employees have been indicted for alleged violations of the FCPA in the Philippines almost 10 years ago. Regardless of the veracity of the allegations and while our accused employees remain innocent until proven guilty, we have 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."

Needless to say, we have a lot of questions...