The charges were linked to the 2016 Philippine elections, during which Smartmatic was alleged to have secured contracts by paying at least $1 million (Ksh129.25 million) in bribes
On Thursday, August 8, a federal grand jury in South Florida, United States (US) indicted Venezuelan-American executive Roger Piñate, founder and president of the voting machine company Smartmatic. Piñate was indicted on charges involving a bribery and money-laundering scheme used to secure elections contracts in the Philippines.
The U.S. Department of Justice found that he, along with two other executives and Juan Andres Donato Bautista, the former Chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in the Philippines, was accused of orchestrating a complex bribery and money laundering scheme.
The charges were linked to the 2016 Philippine elections, during which Smartmatic was alleged to have secured contracts by paying at least $1 million (Ksh129.25 million) in bribes to Bautista, the former Chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in the Philippines.
“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 Justice Department said in a press release.
A mugshot of Smartmatic co-founder Roger Piñate who faces bribery and money laundering charges related to contracts obtained in the Philippines. /MIAMI HERALD
Officials added that the alleged co-conspirators financed the bribes by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine for the elections.
To conceal the operation, the co-conspirators used coded language to refer to the slush fund used to make the illicit payments and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers, the Justice Department noted.
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.
Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez, and Elie Moreno, 44, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Israel, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.
If convicted, Bautista, Pinate, Vasquez and Moreno each face a maximum penalty of 20 years for each count of international laundering of monetary instruments and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Piñate, alongside Venezuelans Antonio Mugica and Alfredo José Anzola, founded Smartmatic in 2000 and gained notoriety after the company was chosen by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to replace the country’s voting machines in 2004.
The company grew by acquiring the much larger Sequoia Voting Systems in 2006, though the company later announced that it had divested its stake in that company.
The firm was notably involved in the 2022 Kenyan general elections when the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) awarded the company a Ksh3.2 billion contract in November 2021 to supply and maintain the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits.
The KIEMS kit tender included the supply, delivery, installation, testing, commissioning, support and maintenance of software and hardware equipment and accessories, all of which were central to the 2022 General Election, facilitating voter identification and results transmission across the country.
The contract award however sparked controversy even though Smartmatic was selected after a competitive bidding process in which it achieved the highest technical and financial scores among five bidders.
The decision was contested in various courts, including the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB), the High Court, and the Court of Appeal. However, IEBC’s decision to award the contract to Smartmatic was upheld, with PPARB asking IEBC to prepare fresh tender documents within 30 days for the Kiems kit for tender No: IEBC/OIT/001/21/2020/2021.
Smartmatic supplied 14,100 new KIEMS kits to complement the 41,000 kits in IEBC’s inventory, bringing the total to 55,100 kits, which were deployed across 46,229 polling stations, with additional backup units in each county assembly ward.
The company’s involvement was seen as critical in the operation of voter identification and results transmission systems. Following the outcome of the polls, the company was in the spotlight after a plea by Raila Odinga’s legal team to issue an order to the IEBC to grant full access to its servers was dismissed by the Supreme Court.
Smartmatic on its part declined a Supreme Court order to provide parties unconditional access to the IEBC servers, citing privacy concerns and a risk of infringing copyright.
Former Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati (centre) addresses journalists at the Bomas of Kenya on June 20, 2022. /DAILY NATION