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US prosecutors charge Smartmatic in alleged $1M Philippine bribery case
Manila Bulletin
|October 18, 2025
Federal prosecutors have charged voting technology firm Smartmatic with money laundering and other crimes arising from more than $1 million in bribes that several executives allegedly paid to election officials in the Philippines.
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The payments, between 2015 and 2018, were made to obtain a contract with the Philippines government to help run that country's 2016 presidential election and secure the timely payment for its work, according to a superseding indictment filed Thursday in a Florida federal court.
Three former executives of Smartmatic, including co-founder Roger Pinate, were previously charged in 2024 but at the time South Florida-based Smartmatic was not named as a defendant. Pinate, who no longer works for Smartmatic but remains a shareholder, has pleaded not guilty.
The criminal case is unfolding as Smartmatic is pursuing a $2.7 billion lawsuit accusing Fox News of defamation for airing false claims that the company helped rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump.
This story is from the October 18, 2025 edition of Manila Bulletin.
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