DOJ Alleges Smartmatic Carried Out ‘Slush Fund’ Bribery Scheme in LA to Gain Lucrative Contracts
A new federal filing alleges that three executives from the voting technology company Smartmatic carried out a scheme in which they overbilled L.A. County during the 2020 election to create a slush fund for bribing government officials.
In the filing, prosecutors fingered Smartmatic co-founder Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez and two other company officials in connection with a plot in which surplus fees of $10 to $50 per machine were allegedly added to each voting machine dispatched to L.A. county — and then those funds were specifically earmarked for bribes to help the company gain lucrative contracts.
Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7 billion — alleging the network defamed them by promoting President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election in the days and weeks after the 2020 vote.
The new filing is part of a corruption case in Florida against the three Smartmatic executives for allegedly operating a bribery and money-laundering scheme in which they are accused of paying off an election official in the Philippines to help secure $182 million in contracts. The DOJ also claims the executives carried a similar plot with a Venezuelan official — whom the executives gave a home with a pool in 2019, according to prosecutors.
Formal charges have only been filed in the case in the Philippines. But prosecutors say they plan to introduce evidence relating to the alleged schemes in L.A. County and Venezuela to demonstrate a larger pattern of corruption. Prosecutors added that they plan to introduce “financial and business records, witness testimony, as well as text and email communications” to support their claims about the L.A. slush fund.
Notably, the original case against the Smartmatic executives was brought in August 2024, during the final months of the Biden administration.
In a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times, Smartmatic spokesperson Samira Saba said the DOJ’s filing contained misrepresentations that were “untethered from reality.”
“Let us be clear: Smartmatic wins business because we’re the best at what we do,” Saba’s statement said. “We operate ethically and abide by all laws always, both in Los Angeles County and every jurisdiction where we operate.”
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