The founder and president of the company that makes voting machines is under investigation for corruption
The founder and president of Smartmatic – the company whose political voting machines and software are used and considered secure around the world – was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury along with two other company officials with the accusation of corruption and money laundering used to obtain electoral contracts in the Philippines.
Roger Piñate, 49, of Boca Ratón, Florida, and Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, of Davie, were charged with allegedly paying $1 million in bribes to former Philippine Election Commission Chairman Juan Andres Donato Bautista .
According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release, these bribes were allegedly paid to obtain and maintain business related to the provision of voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections and to secure contract payments, including the release of value added tax payments .”
According to the indictment, the alleged conspirators financed the bribes by overbilling the cost of each voting machine used in the election. 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 funds related to the bribery scheme through a series of international bank accounts in Asia, Europe and the United States, including the Southern District of Florida.
Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez and Elie Moreno, 44, a Venezuelan and Israeli citizen, are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international money laundering.
If convicted, Bautista, Pinate, Vasquez and Moreno face a maximum sentence of 20 years on each count of international money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. –Miami Herald
Among other things, the company, at a hearing in the Philippines, had admitted that the system used was so weak that it was possible to make votes disappear overnight:
Smartmatic, in the Philippine house, admits that electronic election data could be deleted in the middle of the night, and nobody would even know.
When Smartmatic was forced to sell in the US over its Venezuela links, it retained the Intellectual Property of its software. This… pic.twitter.com/EAs0yaA4cg
—Bad Kitty Unleashed
(@pepesgrandma) August 9, 2024
Smartmatic was founded in 2000 by Piñate, Antonio Mugica and Alfredo José Anzola, and entered international headlines after Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez chose the company to replace the country's voting machines in 2004. In 2006 acquired Sequoia Voting Systems, but later divested its stake.
According to Smartmatic's website, Piñate “played an integral role in the planning and execution of the world's largest election using optical scanners (in the Philippines) and in Smartmatic's award of the largest election contract in the history of the United States (in Los Angeles)”.
The company responded to the accusation Thursday evening, saying in a statement that “Smartmatic has learned that two of our employees were indicted for alleged FCPA violations in the Philippines nearly 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 leave, effective immediately.”
“No election fraud has been alleged and Smartmatic has not been indicted. Voters around the world need to be confident that the elections they participate in are conducted with the utmost integrity and transparency. These are the values that Smartmatic pursues."
Obviously now many are starting to ask many questions about the correctness of the results calculated with the electoral machines.
“Voting machines are so safe you can't believe it!” https://t.co/UUE8hHCrnY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 9, 2024
Frankly, how can you believe in the correctness of the actions of a company that pays bribes to market its products to governments? Why can't you vote with pencil and card?
As you digest the news of Smartmatic indictments, remember what kind of regime you currently live under in this country.
Were we top executives at Smartmatic, a voting machine company, indicted by the regime because of bribery and fraud?
Or were they indicted because something… https://t.co/RdfozHA4K9 pic.twitter.com/AZWniYwQk9
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 9, 2024
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The article The founder and president of the company that makes voting machines under investigation for corruption comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-fondatore-e-il-presidente-dellazienda-che-realizza-macchine-per-il-voto-sotto-inchiesta-per-corruzione/ on Fri, 09 Aug 2024 16:24:48 +0000.