MANILA/MIAMI, Florida – Former Chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Andres Bautista has been indicted by a United States federal grand jury in Florida for allegedly taking $1 million bribes from Smartmatic, the company that provided voting machines for the country’s 2016 elections.

Bautista, who headed the Comelec from 2015 to 2017, awarded Smartmatic a $199 million contract to supply the Comelec with 94,000 voting machines for the 2016 presidential election won by then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

The announcement of indictment came after incumbent Comelec Chairman George Garcia linked Smartmatic, now disqualified from bidding for election contracts due to bribery scandal, to the alleged smear campaign against him alleging that a South Korean firm deposited bribe money to his overseas account which he vehemently denied.

Comelec Chairman Garcia, meanwhile, welcomed the decision of the US Department of Justice.

“It would appear to be a sort of vindication on the part of the present Commission. We were right all along when we disqualified Smartmatic,” the poll body chief said..

“Let’s presume everyone innocent until the guilt is proved,” he added.

Smartmatic was the service provider of the Comelec starting from the May 2020 polls until the May 2022 elections.

However, the company was not allowed to participate in the bidding to automate the May 2025 polls

The US Justice Department said that Bautista, 60, faces one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

Bautista had fled to the US in 2018 after charges were filed against him in the Philippines. He was last seen in Las Vegas, Nevada and in a city where his brother, Dr. Mario Bautista, a former senatorial candidate, resides and Philippine law enforcers are pursuing him.

Three Smartmatic executives  were also indicted for their roles in an “alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain business related to the 2016 Philippine elections,” it said.

According to the indictment, between 2015 and 2018, Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez, 49, a Venezuelan citizen and resident of Boca Raton, Florida, and Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, a US citizen and resident of Davie, Florida, together with others, allegedly caused at least USD1 million in bribes to be paid to Bautista.

“These bribes were allegedly paid to obtain and retain business related to providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections and to secure payments on the contracts, including the release of value-added tax payments,” the US DOJ said.

“The co-conspirators allegedly funded the bribes through a slush fund that was created by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine for the 2016 Philippine elections. To conceal and disguise the nature and purpose of the corrupt payments, the co-conspirators used coded language to refer to the slush fund and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers. The co-conspirators then allegedly laundered funds related to the bribery scheme through bank accounts located in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including in the Southern District of Florida.”

Pinate and Vasquez are each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one substantive violation of the FCPA.

Pinate and Vasquez are each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Like Bautista, Pinate, Vasquez, and Elie Moreno, 44, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Israel, are also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

The case was filed by the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) against Bautista at the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida in September 2023.

The HSI had said it launched a probe after Bautista’s estranged wife alerted the Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) about her husband’s alleged ill-gotten wealth worth P1 billion ($17.57 million).

Reacting to the indictment, Bautista posted on X: “I sense these charges were politically influenced by key Philippine officials. The voting machine company won the contract before, during and after my tenure as Chairman, a role I performed during the 2016 elections with zeal and competence in service of the Filipino people.”

“I will fight for my exoneration in court and show that I have not committed any crime against the US government or the American people nor have I taken advantage or prejudiced them in any way,” Bautista added.

The US Justice deparment explained that “an indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”

If convicted, the department said, Pinate and Vasquez each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the FCPA and conspiracy to violate the FCPA counts.

“Bautista, Pinate, Vasquez, and Moreno each face a maximum penalty of 20 years for each count of international laundering of monetary instruments and conspiracy to commit money laundering.”

The Comelec under Garcia banned Smartmatic last year from bidding on election contracts, but the Supreme Court overturned the ban in April.