Smartmatic execs surrender after indictment for bribing top PH poll official

TWO of the three top executives of the scandal-ridden Smartmatic, have surrendered themselves before US authorities four days after they and former Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) chairman Juan Andres Donato Bautista were indicted for bribery and international money laundering at the Southern District Court of Florida in relation to Smartmatic’s bagging the contracts for the 2016 Philippine national elections (see Pinoy Exposé article, August 9, 2024).

According to a report by the Miami Herald bylined by Jay Weaver and Antonio Maria Delgado (“Smartmatic founder, ex-VP surrender in Miami bribery case tied to Filipino voting machines”), Roger Piñate, 49, who co-founded the automated voting machine technology supplier in 2000 and currently its general manager, was granted an $8.5 million dollar bond for his temporary liberty and later released on Monday, August 12.

Also out on a $1 million bond on the same day is Smartmatic’s vice president for hardware development, Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, an American citizen, the news report said.

It is not yet clear if Bautista, 60, and their co-accused, Elie Moreno, 44, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Israel who handled the Philippine side of Smartmatic’s business, have also stepped forward and posted bail.

Last August 8, 2024, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment by the Southern District Court of Florida of Piñate, Vasquez, Bautista and Moreno for violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), 3 counts of international money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The bribe money to Bautista, placed at $1 million by American investigators, was coursed thru him using various bank accounts in Asia, Europe and the United States and ended up at his offshore account, ‘Baumann Enterprises,’ in the British Virgin Islands.

Ironically, on August 8, current COMELEC chair, George Erwin Garcia, was holding a press conference in Manila where he disproved the allegation of money laundering and possession of offshore bank accounts by a partylist congressman acting as Smartmatic’s attack dog.

The demolition job against Garcia and the COMELEC promptly started after the poll body’s en banc turned down Smartmatic’s bid to again become the country’s automated election voting technology provider for next year’s midterm election. The new contract, budgeted at P18 billion, instead went to Miru Technology of South Korea.

Aside from forcing Garcia and the other COMELEC commissioners to resign or take a leave of absence, the demolition job also seeks at the minimum, to compel the COMELEC to allow the use of Smartmatic’s outdated vote counting machines for next year’s midterm elections. If granted, the COMELEC would have no choice but to again place a contract with Smartmatic for the operation and maintenance of its voting machines.

However, these voting machines are already certified as ‘unserviceable’ and the COMELEC, in a resolution in 2018, decided to scrap them after 6 years of use and look for another service and technology provider. The 6-years’ ‘shelf life’ of Smartmatic’s VCMs (vote counting machines) ended after the 2022 elections, the COMELEC noted.

Incidentally, the 31-page indictment of Bautista and his co-conspirators, a copy of which was given to Pinoy Exposé, detailed that the bribe money to Garcia came about by “over invoicing” the per unit price of each VCM delivered by Smartmatic and used in the 2016 national elections.

The Miami Herald article further noted that getting stained in controversy is something that is not new to Smartmatic. Aside from the Philippines, the company is also embroiled in election scandals in Venezuela during the 2004 election of Pres. Hugo Chavez and in the 2020 US presidential election where it was accused of rigging the votes in favor of the Democratic Party candidate, Joe Biden (see Pinoy Exposé, November 24, 2020).

The company presently has a pending multi-billion defamation suit against Fox News over the allegation.