Four men including the President of Smartmatic were indicted on Thursday in a federal grand jury for bribery and fraud related to the electronic voting system.
In a press release last year, the Department of Justice confirmed that between 2015 and 2018, Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez, 49, a Venezuelan citizen and resident of Boca Raton, Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, a U.S. citizen and resident of Davie, Florida, funneled around $1 million in bribes to Juan Andres Donato Bautista, 60, the former Chairman of the Filipino Commission of Elections (COMELEC).
The DOJ reported:
A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned an indictment today charging three executives of an election voting machine and service provider company and a former Chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Republic of the Philippines for their roles in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain business related to the 2016 Philippine elections.
According to the indictment, between 2015 and 2018, Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez, 49, a Venezuelan citizen and resident of Boca Raton, Florida, and Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, a U.S. citizen and resident of Davie, Florida, together with others, allegedly caused at least $1 million in bribes to be paid to Juan Andres Donato Bautista, 60, the former Chairman of COMELEC. 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 co-conspirators allegedly funded the bribes through a slush fund that was created by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine for the 2016 Philippine elections. To conceal and disguise the nature and purpose of the corrupt payments, the co-conspirators used coded language to refer to the slush fund and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers. The co-conspirators then allegedly laundered funds related to the bribery scheme through bank accounts located in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including in the Southern District of Florida.
What the DOJ does not say is that Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez is the president and co-founder of Smartmatic.
J Michael Waller first reported on this major elections scandal.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-pinate-smartmatic-president/
Smartmatic says that its (indicted) President and COO “continues to play a key role in nurturing Smartmatic’s strategic relationships with clients. He alsomaintains hands-on involvement with Smartmatic-supported election events around the world.” https://t.co/b58C6X5pfQ pic.twitter.com/7b2ljW0slz
— J Michael Waller (@JMichaelWaller) August 8, 2024
J Michael Waller also pointed out that the Smartmatic Chairman nine years ago was Mark Malloch-Brown.
9 years ago: Smartmatic Chairman Mark Malloch-Brown admitted on Philippine TV that “part of our technology is licensed from Dominion.”
Malloch-Brown was Deputy Secretary General of the UN and is now President of the Soros Open Society Foundations.https://t.co/SxxGqor4Pn
— J Michael Waller (@JMichaelWaller) August 8, 2024
Today Mark Malloch Brown leads the George Soros Open Society Foundation.
On Thursday federal prosecutors charged Smartmatic with money laundering and other crimees arising from more than a million dollars in bribes to Filipino election officials.
The AP reported:
Federal prosecutors have charged voting technology firm Smartmatic with money laundering and other crimes arising from more than $1 million in bribes that several executives allegedly paid to election officials in the Philippines.
The payments, between 2015 and 2018, were made to obtain a contract with the Philippines government to help run that country’s 2016 presidential election and secure the timely payment for its work, according to a superseding indictment filed Thursday in Miami federal court.
Three former executives of Smartmatic, including co-founder Roger Pinate, were previously charged in 2024 but at the time Smartmatic was not named as a defendant.
Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The post BREAKING BIG: Federal Prosecutors Charge Smartmatic Executives for Bribing Election Officials More than $1 Million in Philippines appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.