Q&A of the Day – Smartmatic Executives Indicted for Bribery in the Southern District of Florida

Smartmatic hadn’t owned Sequoia since 2006 and that was the last time the company had a significant footprint within the United States.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Half questions, Mine, is it important to stand in form
with us? Happening in the news? Took the man with
a couple of quotes, answered, mis are going to be
a love? Where are they going to pass back? Going
to guarantee that it's Brian Mudd's Q and A of
the day. Yeah, Today's Q and A smart Mattick executives
indicted for bribery in the Southern District of Florida. This
is brought to you by Melissa and Ashes check Mark collections.

(00:20):
Each day I feature our listener question sent by one
of these methods. You may email me Brian Mudd at
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Mud Radio. You may also use the iHeartRadio talk back feature.
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(00:41):
maybe a topic or question for a future Q and
A Today's note this one, mister Mud, thank you for
always filling in for Mark Levin. It's it's always great
talking of early voting, giving your first hand experience with
voting machines in Florida. What do you make of the
federal grand jury indictment of Smart Manic in the Southern

(01:04):
District of Florida. Okay, my thoughts are that this is
of no impact in the twenty twenty four US elections
and that the alleged behavior of three key executives also
wasn't of any impact in the twenty twenty elections. First,
here's a look at the indictment referenced in today's note.

(01:27):
According to the Department of Justice, last Thursday, a federal
grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned to
an indictment charging three executives of an election voting machine
and service company and a former chairman of the Commission
on Elections of the Republic of the Philippines for their
role in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to

(01:49):
retain and obtain business related to the twenty sixteen Philippine elections.
According to the indictment, between twenty fifteen and twenty eighteen,
Roger Martinez, a Venezuelan citizen and resident of Bocra, Tone, Florida,
and Jorge Vasquez, a US citizen and resident of Davy, Florida,

(02:10):
together with others, allegedly caused at least one million dollars
in bribes to be paid to Juan Bautista, the former
cham chairman of Camelek. These bribes were allegedly paid to
obtain and retain business related to providing voting machines and
election services for the twenty sixteen Philippine elections, and to

(02:32):
secure payments on the contracts, including the release of value
added tax payments. The co conspirators allegedly funded the bribes
through a slush fund that was created by over invoicing
the cost per voting machine for the twenty sixteen Philippine elections.
To conceal and disguise the nature and purpose of the
corrupt payments, the co conspirators use coded language to refer

(02:56):
to the slush fund and cause the creation of fraudulent
contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers. The co
conspirators that 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. Okay, that's the

(03:18):
indictment while all this plays out. Here's what's important in
this conversation as it pertains the US election security. As
was noted by Smartmatic following the indictment of three of
its executives, including the co founder, they said, no voter
fraud has been alleged and Smartmatic is not indicted. Still,
voters worldwide must be assured that the elections they participate

(03:40):
in are conducted with the utmost integrity and transparency. These
are the values that Smartmatic lives by. Okay, What's just
as important in this conversation is that while many allegations
were made about Smartmatic's voting systems following the twenty twenty election,
they weren't actually even in use anywhere that fraud was

(04:04):
alleged to have occurred. This was one of the very
big elements I broke all this down in the immediate
aftermath of the twenty twenty election. There's so many falsehoods
that were perpetuated, but one was that Smartmatic was somehow
or another relevant in elections in this country. The only jurisdiction,
literally the only jurisdiction in the entire country hours they

(04:29):
use Smartmatic voting machines in the twenty twenty election was
Los Angeles. That's it. In the wake of the twenty
twenty election, while debunking many of the voter fraud allegations,
I brought you this and breaking down the names of
voting machine companies called into question during that cycle. I said,
to be clear, there's no evidence dominions systems have been compromised,

(04:52):
could be compromised, or aren't reliable. However, there are legacy
systems which are potentially a problem, specifically Ooyah Voting Systems.
Sequoia Voting Systems has one heck of an awful elections
track record. What company was responsible for the ballots in
two thousand that created pregnant hanging in dimple chads and

(05:12):
the palm beaches. It was Sequoya, and when they released
their next generation products, the problems only grew. By two
thousand and four, they were working with a Venezuelan owned
company called Smartmatic. The Sequoia voting systems, programmed by Smartmatic
were first used in the two thousand and four recall
election of Hugo Chavez. Chavez won that election by twenty

(05:34):
percent in a vote which was not deemed credible by
most outset observers. In addition to most Venezuelan voters. Subsequently,
government watchdogs began investigating the Sequoia systems, and in two
thousand and six, the US Committee on Foreign Investment investigation
into these smart Smartmatic programs Sequoia systems determined the following

(05:54):
the role of the young Venezuelan engineers who founded Smartmatic
has become less visible in public documents as the company
has been restructured into an elaborate web of offshore companies and
foreign trust. Additionally, it was found that the systems could
be manipulated by users to flip votes from one candidate

(06:16):
to another and could easily be hacked. With worldwide attention
on these systems led by the Bush administration at the
time Smartmatic sold Sequoia in December of two thousand and six,
this was the root of the Venezuelan conspiracy involving dominion. Okay,

(06:37):
so again this is really important. Smartmatic had not owned
Sequoia since two thousand and six and programmed anything for
Sequoia since two thousand and six, and that was the
last time the company had a significant footprint of the
United States two thousand and six. Therefore, the recent indictment

(07:01):
of three executives certainly doesn't help with Smartmatic's credibility, but
in reality, within the United States, the biggest impact of
the indictment is likely to be the Fox News legal
defense for defamation against Smartmatic related to false reporting following
the twenty twenty election. A lot of people don't realize this.

(07:23):
Smartmatic is currently in process with a lawsuit against Fox
News for over two billion dollars following the seven hundred
and eighty seven and a half million dollars settlement with
Dominion that led to the ouster of Tucker Carlson and
Dan Bongina from the network. A lot of people kind
of forget all the things that happened, but it was

(07:44):
the false reporting of people and the repeated reliance on
demonstrably false information that led to Fox having to settle
that that continue again. I mean, everything that was reported
about Smartmatic operated only in Los Angeles, nothing in question.
And how how many people still think that somehow or

(08:05):
another they were involved in something in the twenty twenty election.
This is the problem with false information that's perpetuated and
it doesn't matter where it comes from. And it's also
important to remember in terms of the credibility of people
who continue to perpetuate, at times conspiratorial information. Again, there
are two sides of stories, one side of facts. These
are the facts.