MIAMI, FLORIDA – Former Commission on Elections (COMELEC) chairman Juan Andres Donato Bautista faces up to 80 years in prison if found guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international money laundering.
US grand jury indicts former Comelec chief Bautista, 3 Smartmatic executives in corruption scandal
Bautista, Roger Alejandro Piñate Martínez, 49, Elie Moreno, 44, and Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62 — executives of a company that provides voting machines and services — each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each count, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has indicted these individuals for allegedly conspiring with Bautista to obtain a contract to supply vote-counting machines to be used in the 2016 Philippine elections.
The indictment alleges that Martínez, Moreno and Vasquez bribed Bautista with approximately $1 million, which was then funneled through banks in Asia, Europe and North and South America.
