MIAMI (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged voting technology company Smartmatic with money laundering and other crimes after several of its executives allegedly paid more than $1 million in bribes to Philippine election officials.
According to the superseding indictment filed Thursday in Florida federal court, the payments were made between 2015 and 2018 to secure a contract with the Philippine government to help the country conduct its 2016 presidential election and to ensure timely payment for its work.
Three former Smartmatic executives, including co-founder Roger Pinate Charged before in 2024, but Smartmatic, which was based in South Florida at the time, was not named as a defendant. Pinat, who no longer works for Smartmatic but remains a shareholder, has pleaded not guilty.
Smartmatic is pursuing a criminal case that is unfolding $2.7 billion lawsuit Accuses Fox News of broadcasting defamation misrepresentation The company helped rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump.
Smartmatic denied the allegations in a statement and said it believed the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami was misled and politically influenced by unknown powerful interests.
“This is again targeted, political and unjust,” the company said. “Smartmatic will continue to stand up for its employees and principles. We will not be intimidated by those who wield power.”
As part of the criminal case, prosecutors in August asked the court for permission to present evidence they said showed revenue from a $300 million contract with Los Angeles County to help modernize its voting system was diverted to ” “Slush Fund” Pinat controlled by using overseas shell companies, fake invoices and other means.
They also accuse Pinat of secretly bribing Venezuela's longtime election chief to provide her with a luxury home in Caracas with a swimming pool. Prosecutors said Smartmatic abruptly quit Venezuela in 2017 after accusing the president, and the house was later handed over to election chiefs in an attempt to repair relations. Nicolás Maduro The government manipulated the statistical results of rubber-stamp Constituent Assembly elections.
Hearings on the alleged evidence linking Los Angeles and Venezuela are scheduled for next month, but no charges are mentioned in the superseding indictment signed by Jason Reding Quinones, the new U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, a Trump appointee.
Smartmatic was founded more than two decades ago by a group of Venezuelans who enjoyed early electoral success and late electoral success. Hugo ChavezAdvocates of electronic voting are in power. The company later expanded globally, providing voting machines and other technology that helped conduct elections in 25 countries from Argentina to Zambia.
But Smartmatic said its business was in trouble after the Fox News report. Trump's lawyer A platform that painted the company as part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election.
Fox said it was lawfully reporting on newsworthy events, but eventually aired an article rebutting the accusations after Smartmatic's lawyers complain. Still, the company aggressively defended itself against the defamation lawsuit in New York, arguing that it faced imminent collapse due to its own internal misconduct rather than any negative publicity.