MIAMI — A federal grandy jury in Miami has charged the Venezuelan co-founder of a voting machine company targeted by allies of former President Donald Trump with paying more than $1 million in bribes to officials in the Philippines in exchange for contracts it won overseeing the island nation’s elections nearly a decade ago.
Pinate co-founded Smartmatic more than two decades ago and its initial success is partly attributable to major contracts from the government of Hugo Chavez, an early devotee of electronic voting, in Pinate’s native Venezuela. It has since expanded globally and helped carry out elections in 25 countries, from Argentina to Zambia as well as several European countries.
Smartmatic sued Fox News for airing false claims that software it developed altered the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In April, another conservative media outlet, One America News Network, settled with Smartmatic similar allegations for undisclosed terms.