US Department of Homeland Security sues Former Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista for money laundering, allegedly received bribe money from top executives of an unnamed poll technology company for the 2016 elections.
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The US Justice Department has filed money-laundering charges against Andres Bautista, former chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the Philippines, in a case involving four executives from subsidiaries of Smartmatic, the technology firm that provided the Philippines vote counting machines (VCMs) it used for the presidential elections in 2016, according to court documents cited by CNN.
The report said Bautista had awarded Smartmatic a $199 million contract to supply 94,000 VCMS for the election won by Rodrigo Duterte.
Smartmatic is also the voting machine company currently suing Fox News for defamation and has been implicated in an alleged Philippine bribery scheme, CNN reported Friday.
The executives, who have not been identified, are implicated as uncharged co-conspirators and are alleged to have "caused or attempted" to transfer $4 million to Bautista "in violation of US money laundering laws," according to CNN.
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