Smartmatic charged in US bribery case over Philippine contracts

MANILA, Philippines — Vote count machine provider Smartmatic has been formally charged in the United States over a bribery and money laundering case that also involves former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Andres Bautista.

The US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida on Thursday confirmed that a federal grand jury in Miami returned a superseding indictment to the alleged bribery scheme in relation to the 2016 general elections in the Philippines.

The superseding indictment charged SGO Corp. Ltd., commonly known as Smartmatic Group, with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

The initial 2024 indictment charged Bautista and former Smartmatic officials Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, Jorge Miguel Vasquez and Elie Moreno with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

Piñate and Vasquez were also charged with one count of violating the FCPA.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, Piñate and Vasquez were accused of paying at least $1 million in bribes to Bautista between 2015 and 2018.

“The bribes were allegedly paid to obtain and retain business from Comelec, including the release of favorable value added tax reimbursements and other contractual payments for the benefit of SGO Corp. Ltd. and its affiliates,” it said.

“To finance the bribes, the co-conspirators allegedly created a slush fund by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine supplied for the 2016 Philippine elections. To conceal the corrupt payments, they used coded language, created fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements, and routed transactions through bank accounts in Asia, Europe and the US, including within the Southern District of Florida,” it added.

Piñate and Vasquez have earlier surrendered to authorities and were released after paying a bond. Bautista and Moreno remain at large and were described as “fugitives” by US authorities.