8/10/2024
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A Smartmatic executive who was not accused of wrongdoing demonstrating the use of an election machine in Manila, Philippines. REUTERS/Erik de Castro© REUTERS/Erik de Castro
- Federal prosecutors have accused Smartmatic’s president of bribery and money laundering.
- The election-tech company became the subject of false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
- Defendants in Smartmatic’s defamation suits say that scandal, not defamation, caused it to lose money.
US federal prosecutors have accused Smartmatic’s president of bribing election authorities in the Philippines to keep and expand the election-technology company’s footprint in the country.
The Justice Department said in a Thursday press release that Roger Piñate, the president and a cofounder of Smartmatic, faked invoices and contracts in the late 2010s to help pay $1 million to Andres Bautista, the former head of the Philippine elections commission.
Smartmatic became a household name in the aftermath of the 2020 US election, when allies of then-President Donald Trump falsely accused it — and its rival election-technology company Dominion Voting Systems — of rigging votes to benefit now-President Joe Biden.
In reality, Smartmatic’s technology was used in only one county during the 2020 election, Los Angeles.
But the indictment can still help Fox News, Newsmax, and other defendants in Smartmatic’s many defamation lawsuits. These defendants have argued that scandal — not claims about election rigging — caused Smartmatic to lose contracts.
The indictment against Piñate has not yet been made public. The Justice Department’s press release published Thursday detailing the charges did not allege that Smartmatic’s technology was used to manipulate votes.
The Justice Department says Piñate, along with another Smartmatic employee, laundered the funds by inflating the cost of each voting machine used in the 2016 Philippine election. Prosecutors say the bribery scheme spanned bank accounts in Asia, Europe, and Florida, where the case was brought.
Prosecutors say that through the bribery of Bautista — a codefendant in the case — Smartmatic retained and expanded its election services in the 2016 election.
According to CNN, Bautista awarded Smartmatic $199 million in contracts for the 2016 Philippine presidential election.
In a statement, Smartmatic said the indicted employees were placed on a leave of absence and stressed that the Justice Department did not allege any voter fraud.
“No voter fraud has been alleged and Smartmatic is not indicted,” the company said in a statement. “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.”
Following the 2020 election, Smartmatic and Dominion both launched civil defamation lawsuits against Trump allies and right-wing media organizations that pushed false claims about the companies.
Smartmatic filed still pending lawsuits against Fox News, Newsmax, Trump’s now-former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and others. Some of the lawsuits are being funded by Reid Hoffman, a LinkedIn cofounder and Democratic Party donor.
Giuliani and Powell both pushed a false conspiracy theory that Smartmatic and Dominion were somehow in cahoots with each other to manipulate votes. In addition to suing them, Smartmatic sued media organizations that it said allowed those claims to go unchallenged.
Fox News paid $787.5 million last year to settle claims brought by Dominion, averting a trial.
Smartmatic agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit against One America News, another right-wing media company, earlier this year.
Most other cases from both companies are ongoing.
Smartmatic has a small domestic presence but a much larger international business than Dominion. In court filings, it has said its canceled international contracts in the wake of false claims about the 2020 election mean it should receive even greater damages.
But some of its defamation lawsuits have been snagged by claims of wrongdoing in the Philippines. Information about the bribery accusations was disclosed in court filings last year in the lawsuit Smartmatic brought against One America News.
In 2023, COMELEC — the Philippine election commission — banned Smartmatic over the scandal, but the decision was overturned earlier this year by the country’s supreme court.
Defendants in Smartmatic’s defamation cases have argued that Smartmatic has vastly overstated its the amount of damages it says it should get.
They say Smartmatic’s overseas contract dealings and other issues with the company — not their claims about the company’s role in the 2020 election — have led to lost business.
8/9/2024
ttps://americanjournaldaily.com/scandal-rocks-2024-election/?
Scandal Rocks 2024 Election As Voting Machine President Indicted for Bribery
Using paper ballots is still the safest way to go. People who work at the polls have gotten lazy is the problem and the fact they have a hard time cheating. It is time to “earn” a vote the hard way – count each vote. People don’t have to work there.
By Mick Farthing|August 9, 2024
For years, concerns about voter fraud have been bubbling under the surface. Whether it’s accusations of dead people voting or ballot stuffing, Americans have feared tampering with our elections. In some cases, people wondered about the potential corruption of the technology used to tabulate votes. The last presidential election did nothing to alleviate those fears.
Donald Trump has been a vocal advocate for election integrity. Republicans in red states have passed strict laws.
But new problems keep arising, forcing lawmakers to constantly make changes. Without strong enforcement, there is no telling how vulnerable our elections could become. The latest news from voting machine company Smartmatic only adds fuel to the fire: the company’s president has just been indicted over an international bribery scheme.
From Just the News:
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted voting-machine company Smartmatic’s president and founder Roger Piñate on bribery and money-laundering charges in order to get election contracts in the Philippines…Piñate, along with alleged co-conspirators Jorge Miguel Vasquez, and Elie Moreno, have been accused of giving former chairman of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections Juan Andres Donato Bautista $1 million in bribes to secure the contracts.
Roger Piñate, the president of Smartmatic, is facing serious legal trouble. According to reports, he’s been hit with charges related to bribery and money laundering. The accusations claim that Piñate paid out a bribe to Filipino election officials. Prosecutors are accusing him of paying $1 million to secure a contract for his company. This is the kind of scandal that can make even the most trusting voter start to feel a bit uneasy about the integrity of the very companies that count our votes.
Now, let’s be clear: Smartmatic is no small-time operation. They’ve been involved in election processes around the globe, including here in the United States. So, when the leader of such a company gets caught up in a corruption scandal, it’s no wonder Americans are starting to question just how secure and fair our elections really are.
An International Scandal
His co-conspirators include Jorge Miguel Vasquez and Elie Moreno. They have been accused of paying the chairman of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections, Juan Andres Donato Bautista, bribes to secure the contracts. According to reports, they laundered the money by hiding payments in invoices and using code words, as well as creating fraudulent contracts and fake loan agreements. Should these men be found guilty, they face up to twenty years in prison for each charge.
Election Fallout
Trust in the electoral process is the bedrock of any democracy. When that trust is shaken, the entire system starts to wobble. And right now, it feels like we’re walking a very fine line. With each new scandal, each new piece of evidence suggesting possible corruption or mismanagement, Americans’ confidence in our elections erodes just a little bit more.
Americans have been worried about the ballot-counting process since 2020. The mainstream media and the Democratic Party have all but censored people from talking about it. But at the time, there were worries that real ballots weren’t being counted, and fake ballots were being used—in some districts. News that a voting machine company was paying out bribes will not reassure Americans that the process is being remedied.
What will stop people from fearing their voters aren’t being counted? Or that other companies aren’t tampering with voting machines to benefit certain candidates? How this election shakes out could strengthen Americans’ faith in democracy or destroy it for good. This indictment could be prosecutors’ way of reassuring Americans that this kind of crime is taken seriously. We’ll just have to see what happens next.
Key Takeaways:
- Smartmatic President Roger Piñate has been indicted on bribery and money laundering charges.
- The company allegedly paid bribes to Filipino officials to secure contracts.
- This scandal intensifies fears about voter fraud and election security in the United States.
Source: Just the News
What is the old saying – where there is smoke – there is fire?
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