Prosecutors allege three Smartmatic executives added surplus fees of $10 to $50 per voting machine dispatched to L.A. County and earmarked those funds for bribes to win contracts. The accused include Smartmatic co-founder Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez and two other company officials. Smartmatic is pursuing a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News over post-2020 election coverage. The Florida filing connects to an alleged bribery and money-laundering scheme involving a paid Philippine election official and a Venezuelan official reportedly given a home. Prosecutors plan to introduce financial records, witness testimony, and communications to show a broader pattern of corruption.
In the filing, prosecutors fingered Smartmatic co-founder Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez and two other company officials in connection with a plot in which surplus fees of $10 to $50 per machine were allegedly added to each voting machine dispatched to L.A. county and then those funds were specifically earmarked for bribes to help the company gain lucrative contracts. Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7 billion alleging the network defamed them by promoting President Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election in the days and weeks after the 2020 vote.
The new filing is part of a corruption case in Florida against the three Smartmatic executives for allegedly operating a bribery and money-laundering scheme in which they are accused of paying off an election official in the Philippines to help secure $182 million in contracts. The DOJ also claims the executives carried a similar plot with a Venezuelan official whom the executives gave a home with a pool in 2019, according to prosecutors.
Formal charges have only been filed in the case in the Philippines. But prosecutors say they plan to introduce evidence relating to the alleged schemes in L.A. County and Venezuela to demonstrate a larger pattern of corruption. Prosecutors added that they plan to introduce financial and business records, witness testimony, as well as text and email communications to support their claims about the L.A. slush fund.
Collection
[
|
...
]