Smartmatic founder, ex-VP surrender in US

Over $1 million Philippines bribery case

MANILA, Philippines — Smartmatic founder Roger Piñate and a former vice president of the election technology provider have surrendered to authorities in the United States to face charges against them, the Miami Herald reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, Piñate and former Smartmatic vice president for hardware development Jorge Miguel Vasquez surrendered to face charges in a Miami federal court on Monday.

The two were among the four indicted by a federal grand jury last week over an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme in relation to the 2016 elections in the Philippines.

Charged along with them were former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Andres Bautista and Elie Moreno, former vice president of Smartmatic’s global services unit who also served as general manager of Smartmatic Philippines.

The Miami Herald said Piñate, whose full name in the indictment is Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, was released after he was allowed to post a bond of $8.5 million.

Vasquez, meanwhile, was released on a $1-million bond.

Piñate was not able to enter a plea, while Vasquez pleaded not guilty to the charges, the report added.

Based on the press release from the US Justice Department last week, Piñate and Vasquez were each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and one substantive violation of the FCPA.

Bautista, Piñate, Vasquez and Moreno were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

According to the US Justice Department, Piñate and Vasquez “allegedly caused at least $1 million in bribes” to be paid to Bautista.

“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,” read the press release.

They allegedly funded the bribes through a slush fund created by over-invoicing the cost of voting machines used in the 2016 elections in the Philippines.

“To conceal and disguise the nature and purpose of the corrupt payments, the co-conspirators used coded language to refer to the slush fund and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers,” the US Justice Department said.

“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,” it added.

If convicted, Piñate and Vasquez could face a maximum of penalty of five years in prison for the FCPA charges, while the four could each face a maximum penalty of 20 years for each count of the laundering charges.

In an earlier statement in response to the indictment, Smartmatic said it has placed Piñate and Moreno on leaves of absence “regardless of the veracity of the allegations and while our accused employees remain innocent until proven guilty.”

Vasquez is no longer with the company.

“No voter fraud has been alleged and Smartmatic is not indicted. Voters worldwide must be assured that the elections they participate in are conducted with the utmost integrity and transparency. These are the values that Smartmatic lives by,” added the company.

The Comelec in the Philippines said it is also investigating the matter.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the poll body is conducting its own probe into the alleged irregular payment of P700-million value added tax (VAT) to -Smartmatic in connection with the procurement of vote counting machines used in the 2016 elections.

“Bakit nagbigay ng VAT, dapat zero. Sino tumanggap,” Garcia said, emphasizing the investigation panel will determine why VAT was paid and who received payment.

Speaking at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum yesterday, Garcia reported that these alleged anomalous transactions were cited in the bribery charges against former chairman Bautista.

Smartmatic, however, maintained that there is nothing irregular in the payment of tax and insisted that it only complied with the provision documents issued by the Comelec.

“Such provision was not new for that election. On the contrary, it has been present in other bidding for previous automated elections,” it said in a statement.

Smartmatic said its 2015 bid factored in all applicable taxes, including VAT and the prices in the signed contract for the lease of 23,000 and 70,000 machines were also inclusive of all taxes. – Mayen Jaymalin