Smartmatic executives indicted for allegedly bribing Philippine official

Two executives at Smartmatic, a voting machine company, were indicted in Florida on Thursday for allegedly bribing officials in the Philippines to secure contracts ahead of the 2016 election there, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Florida announced.

Smartmatic President Roger Piñate and another executive, Jorge Miguel Vasquez, were indicted on charges that they laundered money across the world — including through Florida — to pay an estimated $1 million in bribes a Philippine official in order to secure contracts surrounding their 2016 election.

The employees have been placed on a leave of absence.

“No voter fraud has been alleged and Smartmatic is not indicted. Still, voters worldwide must be assured that the elections they participate in are conducted with the utmost integrity and transparency. These are the values that Smartmatic lives by,” the company said in a statement.

Piñate, a Venezuelan citizen and Florida resident, and Vasquez, a U.S. citizen and Florida resident, could face decades in prison for money laundering and a related conspiracy charge, as well as five years for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Smartmatic was accused by a number of prominent figures on the right of rigging the U.S. presidential election in 2020, despite the fact the company is only used in Los Angeles. Smartmatic has since filed a major defamation suit against Fox News and its parent company over the network’s reporting on the stolen election claims.

Fox News promoted the indictment of the Smartmatic executives in an email to reporters.

"Fox News is fully aware that they are unable to prevail in a courtroom in the Smartmatic case. As a result, they have chosen to engage in a smear campaign pitching unrelated news to the media to distract from the established pattern of defamation against Smartmatic. They will be held accountable for they damage they did to Smartmatic and undermining global faith in democracy," the suit's lead attorney, J. Erik Connolly, said in a statement shared first with NBC News.

In a separate statement, a Fox News spokesperson said, "“We look forward to defending our case in court.”