Ex-Smartmatic Exec Indicted in Money Laundering Scheme

The DOJ indicted Smartmatic, the software provider all US election tabulation machines use foundationally. The operating system of the tabulation machines is Smartmatic.

Smartmatic, the voting technology company suing Fox News and former President Donald Trump’s top allies over their false claims that its machines rigged the 2020 election, was implicated in an alleged bribery scheme involving the former top election official in the Philippines, according to court filings obtained by CNN.

Former Filipino election administrator Andres Bautista was indicted on money laundering charges. Four co-conspirators were noted but not charged or named. It implicates Smartmatic tangentially. Smartmatic is the voting technology company suing Fox News and former President Donald Trump’s top allies over claims that its machines rigged the 2020 election.

The bribe money was to influence the awarding of contracts for Smartmatic equipped devices that rigged elections in the Philippines in 2016.

Smartmatic filed massive defamation suits against Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, several individual Fox hosts, ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and others. They all deny wrongdoing.

Smartmatic is accused of lawfare and has sued for recompense far in excess of the company’s value.

According to the charging documents, the Smartmatic executives used “slush funds” and “fake contracts” to facilitate alleged bribes and masked their actions with phony email accounts. “Salsa” was their code word for “money,” the documents alleged.

As an aside, according to Newsmax, Smartmatic has long had ties with the regime of Venezuelan strongmen Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, handling the country’s presidential and congressional elections for over a decade.

Smartmatic is not accused of tampering with election results, but it opens the door to the discovery of election software.