
A federal grand jury in Florida indicted Smartmatic co-founder Roger Piñate and another company executive and the former chairman of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections, Andres Bautista, over alleged involvement in a multi-million-dollar bribery and money laundering scheme aimed at influencing the 2016 Philippine elections. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced the charges against four defendants unsealed on Friday. The indictment alleges that between 2015 and 2018, Piñate and Jorge Miguel Vasquez orchestrated a scheme to pay at least $1 million in bribes to Bautista....