MANILA, Philippines — Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Andres Bautista and three executives of an election voting machine and service provider company have been indicted on Friday (Manila time) by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida for their roles in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain business related to the 2016 Philippine elections.

Aside from Bautista, also charged were Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez, Jorge Miguel Vasquez and Elie Moreno.

The election voting machine and service provider company was not identified in the charge sheet.

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

In addition, Pinate and Vasquez were each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one substantive violation of the FCPA.

If convicted the four co-conspirators face a maximum penalty of 20 years for each count of international laundering of monetary instruments and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Separately, Pinate and Vasquez each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the FCPA and conspiracy to violate the FCPA counts.

Based on records, between 2015 and 2018, Pinate and Vasquez, together with others, allegedly caused at least $1 million in bribes to be paid to Bautista in his capacity as Comelec chairman at the time.

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 three allegedly funded the bribes through a slush fund that was created by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine for the 2016 Philippine elections.

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.

Bautista, Pinate and Vasquez 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.

While the Justice department did not name the company, one of the three indicted officers was Martinez, identified as a Venezuelan and a resident of Florida who is a co-founder of Smartmatic, the same company which provided the automated counting machines in the 2016 and 2022 elections in the Philippines.

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