(NEW YORK) — The Department of Justice brought charges Thursday against the voting machine company Smartmatic, accusing it of allegedly bribing an official in the Philippines to win contracts, according to court papers filed in the Southern District of Florida.
The indictment accuses Smartmatic and a number of employees of bribing a Philippine official in order to retain business, specifically in relation to the purchase of voting machines in the 2016 Philippines election.
The charges come as Smartmatic is involved in a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News, having accused the channel of “knowingly and intentionally” spreading false claims of voting machine fraud in the wake of the 2020 election, causing Smartmatic to lose business.
Fox has said they were covering newsworthy allegations made by President Donald Trump and others, and has accused Smartmatic of looking to profit off a lawsuit.
Thursday’s indictment alleges that the Philippine bribes exceeded $1 million.
“To finance the bribes, the co-conspirators allegedly created a slush fund by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine supplied for the 2016 Philippine elections,” a DOJ press release on the charges stated. “To conceal the corrupt payments, they used coded language, created fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements, and routed transactions through bank accounts in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., including within the Southern District of Florida.”
The superseding indictment comes after the Department of Justice previously indicted a number of Smartmatic officials, but not the company itself.
The charges filed Thursday against Smartmatic include conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering, among others.
Smartmatic in a statement said they “categorically deny those allegations” and called the indictment “wrong on the facts and wrong on the law,” adding that they believe the move was “targeted, political, and unjust.”
“We will contest the claims, and we are confident we will prevail in court,” the statement said.
Smartmatic also said the indictment was “more of the same” from the previous indictment last year, which they called “spurious.” The statement also claimed that the U.S. attorney in the case had been “misled and politically influenced by powerful interests, despite our extensive cooperation with the government.”
“Smartmatic will continue to stand by its people and principles,” the statement said. “We will not be intimidated by those pulling the strings of power.”
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