Voting-machine company earlier brought defamation suits against Trump allies over claims it rigged t

Voting-technology provider Smartmatic was charged Thursday with conspiring to bribe foreign officials and money laundering over a decade-old effort to win business in the Philippines.

The Justice Department added the parent company of Smartmatic, SGO Corporation Ltd., as a defendant in a criminal case earlier filed in Miami federal court against three Smartmatic executives.

Smartmatic is a corrupt. They should be banned from US elections.

In 2006, Lou Dobbs reported on Smartmatic voting machines being managed by Venezuela. Why would they be involved with United States elections?? pic.twitter.com/4ZRyIIEAa2

— Freyja (@FreyjaTarte) October 16, 2025

Smartmatic was just charged in an indictment for election money laundering in 2016.

According to my sources: Smartmatic was warned about this indictment 6 weeks ago by a DOJ official.

Notice: Dominion was suddenly "sold off" last week.

— Emerald Robinson (@EmeraldRobinson) October 16, 2025

Prosecutors charge Smartmatic in alleged $1M Philippines bribery case

MIAMI (AP) — 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.

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.

Smartmatic in a statement denied the allegations and said it believed the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami had been misled and politically influenced by unnamed powerful interests.