Smartmatic was implicated in an alleged bribery scheme.
Sep. 27 2023, Updated 10:13 a.m. ET
The voting software company that sued Fox News and former President Donald Trump‘s allies over false 2020 election claims was recently implicated in an alleged bribery scheme involving the former top election official in the Philippines, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Court filings obtained by CNN this week found that the U.S. Justice Department filed money laundering charges against former Filipino election administrator Andres Bautista.
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The U.S. Justice Department filed money laundering charges against former Filipino election administrator Andres Bautista.
Four executives from Smartmatic were also named in the indictment as uncharged co-conspirators.
Smartmatic vehemently denied the allegations, and company spokeswoman Samira Saba stated that the company “never won a project through any illegal means” and that the accusations in the Bautista case are “unrelated to election security or integrity.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Smartmatic filed massive defamation lawsuits against Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell, and other parties over claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against then-President Trump.
Some of the defendants reportedly attempted to fight back against the defamation lawsuits by highlighting Smartmatic’s ties to Venezuela and its involvement in other foreign elections such as the Philippines.
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Four executives from Smartmatic were also named in the indictment as uncharged co-conspirators.
The co-conspirators in the Philippines-related criminal case remain unnamed in the court filing, but the documents alleged that they attempted to funnel $4 million to Bautista in violation of U.S. money laundering laws.
The charging documents also alleged that the Smartmatic executives used slush funds and fake contracts to facilitate alleged bribes, masked their actions with phony email accounts, and used “salsa” as their code word for money.
Bautista allegedly awarded $199 million in contracts to Smartmatic for voting machines and to handle the results of the Philippines’ 2016 presidential election.
Meanwhile, Bautista denied any involvement in the bribery allegations and insisted that the elections he oversaw were regarded as the “best managed” in Filipino history.
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Bautista allegedly awarded $199 million in contracts to Smartmatic for voting machines during the 2016 Philippines election.
He also stated that he would respond to the charges at the appropriate time and forum.
Smartmatic’s spokesperson emphasized that “winning a bid in the Philippines is not solely the preference or decision of one individual” and that the company had both “won and lost bids in the country” over the years.
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The new allegation of corrupt foreign dealings could potentially support the defense of Fox News and the other Trump allies currently fighting Smartmatic in court.
Sources predicted that the defendants might argue that it was not their lies about the 2020 election that caused Smartmatic to lose business, but rather the allegedly criminal behavior of some of the company’s employees.
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Smartmatic previously filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
The criminal complaint against Bautista does not accuse Smartmatic of tampering with election results in the Philippines or any other jurisdiction, and a State Department report concluded that the 2016 elections in the Philippines were “generally free and fair.”
It should also be noted that Smartmatic’s voting machines were only used in one California county during the 2020 election, although Trump’s allies peddled the claim that the company manipulated the results of the entire election.