When organizations issue public relations-style statements, they often raise more suspicions than they quell.
For instance, in the wake of an indictment handed down on Thursday against its company president and others, the Florida-based voting machine company Smartmatic issued a statement that oozed chutzpah and thus made one wonder about company officials’ capacity for truth-telling.
Indeed, the statement concluded with a remarkable boast of the company’s “integrity and transparency.”
At first glance, of course, one might expect such a boast since the indictment did not name the company itself. Nor did the indictment allege voter fraud.
Nonetheless, in light of the indictment’s details, the Smartmatic statement qualified as highly disingenuous.
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“Smartmatic has learned that two of our employees have been indicted for alleged violations of the FCPA in the Philippines almost 10 years ago. Regardless of the veracity of the allegations and while our accused employees remain innocent until proven guilty, we have placed both employees on leaves of absence, effective immediately,” the first half of the statement read.
Note the use of the word “employees” three times in two sentences. Such innocuous language might lead readers to believe that a few salesmen or middle-management types had defrauded a customer.
In fact, according to a press release by the Department of Justice, the indictment named 49-year-old Roger Alejandro Pinate Martinez, president and co-founder of Smartmatic, as a suspect in “an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain business related to the 2016 Philippine elections.”
The indictment also named two other company executives, 62-year-old Jorge Miguel Vasquez and 44-year-old Elie Moreno.
Will the media work to cover-up this huge development with Smartmatic?
In other words, these were not merely “employees.”
According to the DOJ, 60-year-old Juan Andres Donato Bautista, former Chairman of the Commission on Elections of the Republic of the Philippines, allegedly received at least $1 million in bribes from the co-conspirators, who allegedly sought to “obtain and retain business related to providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections.”
The scheme allegedly involved a slush fund. In fact, the co-conspirators allegedly created the fund by overcharging for each voting machine. Then, they allegedly laundered the funds through Asian, European and American bank accounts. All the while, they allegedly referred to the slush fund using “coded language.”
Nothing says “integrity and transparency” like allegations of money laundering and a secret slush fund.
Smartmatic, of course, found itself at the center of controversies surrounding the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In 2021, the company sued Fox News and others for defamation.
To be clear, Thursday’s indictment had nothing to do with the 2020 U.S. election.
Nonetheless, allegations of bribery and money laundering by the Smartmatic co-founder and president do not redound to the company’s glory. Nor does a disingenuous statement about company “employees.”
In fact, on the social media platform X, author J. Michael Waller suggested that the statement had to have come from Smartmatic Chairman and CEO Antonio Mugica, and that Mugica deliberately concealed the names of Pinate and Moreno, the latter Mugica’s brother-in-law.
This @Smartmatic statement could come only from its Chairman & CEO (and largest shareholder) @antoniomugica, who is covering up the fact that the two “employees” are his own President @ COO, Roger Piñate, and his own brother-in-law, Elie Moreno. https://t.co/FRdr54FP5N
— J Michael Waller (@JMichaelWaller) August 9, 2024
Indeed, when coupled with the DOJ allegations, the use of such obfuscating language as “employees” itself raises questions about other kinds of dishonest behavior in which company executives might engage.
