https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article290982400.html
Smartmatic founder, ex-VP surrender in Miami bribery case tied to Filipino voting machines By Jay Weaver and Antonio Maria Delgado Updated August 13, 2024 6:16 AM
Roger Piñate, the Venezuelan-American founder of the voting-machine company Smartmatic, surrendered to authorities and faced charges Monday in Miami federal court of committing foreign corruption and money laundering to secure elections contracts in the Philippines. Piñate, 49, president of Boca Raton-based Smartmartic, was charged along with Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, of Davie, the company’s former vice president of hardware development, who also surrendered on Monday. . .
Court records, including a Homeland Security Investigations criminal complaint, indicate that Smartmatic’s contracts with the Philippines were worth $199 million for providing voting machines and other services for the May 2016 election for president, vice president and other official positions. Federal authorities said the alleged co-conspirators financed the bribes by overbilling the cost per voting machine for the elections. To conceal the operation, the co-conspirators used coded language in referring to a slush fund that was used to make the illicit payments, and they created fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify the transfers, the Justice Department said, citing the indictment filed by prosecutor Robert Emery.
The co-conspirators then allegedly laundered bribery payments through bank accounts located in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including in the Southern District of Florida, according to the indictment. Piñate, Vasquez, Bautista and Elie Moreno, 44, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Israel who oversaw Smartmatic’s contracts in the Philippines, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments. . .
https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-smartmatic-lawsuit-bribery-roger-pinate-1996306
Judge Decides Fox News Won’t Receive Records Related to Bribery Case
Published Dec 05, 2024 at 3:37 PM EST
A New York judge on Thursday denied Fox News’ request to receive records related to a bribery case that the news network claims would help them in a defamation lawsuit that the voting technology company Smartmatic filed against them.
Judge David B. Cohen said the bribery indictment against some of Smartmatic’s executives didn’t change his mind on two similar requests from Fox.
“It’s a mere accusation. It raises no presumption of guilt,” Cohen said.
Why Is Smartmatic Suing Fox News?
Smartmatic is suing Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp. for $2.7 billion after the news network aired false claims that Smartmatic helped rig the 2020 election. The company is also suing multiple current or former on-air hosts from the network.
In the wake of then-President Donald Trump’s loss to now-President Joe Biden, he and his lawyers claimed the election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud. Despite there being no evidence to back up such claims, Fox News broadcasted them—which Smartmartic says gutted their business. Fox News did ultimately air an interview with an election technology expert who refuted allegations of election fraud against Smartmatic.
Fox says it was simply reporting on newsworthy allegations made by Trump and his allies.
Fox is countersuing Smartmatic as it claims the defamation lawsuit violates a New York law against baseless suits aimed at surpressing reporting or criticism of public issues.
Meanwhile, Fox News already settled a $787 million lawsuit last year after another voting technology company, Dominion Voting Systems, accused the news network of damaging the company’s reputation with their coverage of the 2020 election fraud claims.
What Are the Facts of the Bribery Case?
The August 8 indictment of Smartmatic co-founder Roger Piñate and two other executives relates to Smartmatic’s efforts to get work in the Phillippines between 2015 and 2018.
Piñate and the two Smartmatic executives have been accused of scheming to pay more than $1 million in bribes to a Filipino election official to deploy Smartmatic voting machines and pay promptly for them, the indictment says. The payments were made through sham loan agreements and a slush fund created by overcharging for the machines, federal prosecutors allege.
Piñate, who has served as Smartmatic’s president, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to money laundering. It’s unclear whether the two company executives charged have entered pleas.
The company itself isn’t charged in the case, and Piñate and the two executives were placed on leave. Smartmatic sought to reassure voters that elections are “conducted with the utmost integrity and transparency.”
Why Does Fox Need the Case Records?
Fox says that the bribery case is relevant to Smartmartic’s business prospects, and therefore to the voting technology company’s claims about what it lost and stands to lose because of Fox’s coverage of the 2020 election fraud claims.
“As of Aug 8, governments will have to take into account the risks of doing business with a company [where some executives have been] accused of serious corruption by the U.S. Department of Justice [DOJ],” Fox lawyer Brad Masters told a New York court Thursday.
Masters asked the court to order Smartmatic to provide any documents that it gave the DOJ for the bribery investigation, any customer inquiries about the charges and any staff communications about the matter and its impact on the voting-technology company.
Meanwhile, Smartmatic’s lawyers argued that the indictment is irrelevant to their lawsuit.
“There’s merely an allegation, which is probative of nothing,” Smartmatic attorney Caitlin Kovacs said Thursday. She suggested Fox wanted to “stand up here and play prosecutor to the jury” and “accuse Smartmatic of a crime that they didn’t commit.”