(Miami) The former administrator of the Philippine electoral commission was indicted Thursday in Florida, in the southeastern United States, on suspicion of having accepted bribes from a company supplying voting machines during the 2016 presidential election.
Andres “Andy” Bautista, 60, was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Three executives of the voting machine company were also indicted for their role in “an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain contracts related to the 2016 Philippine elections.”
The Justice Department did not name the company involved, but one of the three executives is Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez, 49, a co-founder of the company Smartmatic.
Between 2015 and 2018, Mr. Pinate, Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, and others “enabled at least $1 million in bribes to be paid” to Mr. Bautista, according to the indictment.
Head of the electoral commission from 2015 to 2017, he awarded a $199 million contract to Smartmatic to supply the Philippines with tens of thousands of machines during the 2016 presidential election, won by Rodrigo Duterte, in power until 2022.
The Philippine Election Commission had banned Smartmatic from bidding for elections, but the country’s Supreme Court overturned the decision in April.
On his X account, Mr. Bautista denied the allegations, saying he “never requested or received bribes from Smartmatic or any other entity.”
Asked by AFP, the Justice Department and the prosecutor’s office did not specify whether Mr. Bautista was detained in the United States.
Smartmatic said in a statement that it had placed its two indicted employees “on leave, effective immediately,” while assuring that there had been no accusations of “election fraud and that Smartmatic had not been charged.”
“Voters around the world must have the assurance that the elections in which they participate are conducted with the utmost integrity and transparency,” the company added.
The company has filed a lawsuit against Fox News and supporters of Donald Trump, accusing them of spreading conspiracy theories that made them an instrument of massive fraud during the 2020 US elections.