Head of Smartmatic voting machine company indicted on bribery, money laundering charges

On Thursday, a federal grand jury in Florida indicted Roger Piñate, the founder and president of the voting-machine company Smartmatic, on charges of a bribery and money-laundering scheme he used to secure elections contracts in the Philippines.

According to federal prosecutors, between 2015 and 2018, Piñate (49) a Venezuelan-American now living in Boca Ratón, Flor., Jorge Miguel Vasquez (62) from Davie, FL and two other men were involved in the payment of a $1 million in bribes to Juan Andres Donato Bautista, the former chairman of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections.

The Department of Justice said in a release, “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."

The alleged co-conspirators financed the bribes by over-invoicing the cost of each machine for the election. In order to conceal the operation, they used a coded language to refer to the slush fund used to make the payments and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and fake loan agreements to justify transfers.

The co-conspirators then allegedly laundered funds through bank accounts in Asia, Europe, and the US, including in the Southern District of Florida.

Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez, and Elie Moreno (44), are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments and face a maximum penalty of 20 years for each count of international laundering of monetary instruments and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Piñate founded Smartmatic in 2000 together with Venezuelans Antonio Mugica and Alfredo José Anzola. The company was chosen by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez to replace the country’s voting machines in 2004. The company grew in 2006 by acquiring Sequoia Voting Systems, but later announced that it had divested from the company, according to the El Neuvo Herald.