In a stunning twist to an already explosive corruption case, a Florida federal grand jury on Thursday issued a superseding indictment charging Smartmatic, the global election technology company, with participating in a $1 million bribery scheme involving top Philippine election officials.
The indictment accuses Smartmatic of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), conspiracy to commit money laundering, and international laundering of monetary instruments — marking a significant escalation in the U.S. government’s investigation into alleged overseas corruption tied to the company’s lucrative contracts.
According to prosecutors, Smartmatic’s co-founder and president Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, along with former executives Jorge Miguel Vasquez and Elie Moreno, funneled bribes to Juan Andres Donato Bautista, the former chairman of the Philippines Commission on Elections (COMELEC), between 2015 and 2018 to secure and maintain government contracts, including for the 2016 Philippine national elections.
