The United States accuses the electoral company Smartmatic to bribe the head of the CNE of Venezuela Tibisay Lucena Last | WORLD – El diario andino
Prosecutors USA They accused the founder of the electoral technology company Smartmatic, the Venezuelan-American Roger Piñate, to bribe the then chief of the then chief of National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela, Tibisay Lucena Ramírezin exchange for efforts with the government.
The federal authorities presented evidence about an alleged house that Piñate, who faces a judgment for money laundering and bribes, transferred to Lucena Ramírez In Caracas between April and July 2019, according to judicial documents of the Southern District of Florida available on Tuesday.
Newsletter return to the world
The defendant delivered the residence, «A upper middle class house with a pool that piñate possessed and controlled through a foreign corporation»so that the then official helped to settle a conflict with the government after the electoral count of the National Constituent Assembly in 2017, describes the accusation.
Read also: Juan Pablo Guanipa and other collaborators close to María Corina Machado are arrested by the Maduro dictatorship
«In exchange for Lucena Ramírez’s help with company status As an electoral service provider in Venezuela, the defendant Piñate bribed Lucena Ramírez with the deeds and the use of a residence in Caracas, ”says the document, which includes three images of the house.
Smartmatic and the Government of the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro They faced themselves after the 2017 legislative elections, when the firm reported a difference of one million votes between the figures of real participation and that proclaimed by Chavismo, which resulted in the departure of the country’s company in March 2018.
Maduro’s administration suspended the Smartmatic payments and contracts, which had provided voting machine services and others related from 2004 to 2018, so it sought the help of Lucena Ramírez, President of the CNE from 2006 to 2020.
Nicolás Maduro greets Tibisay Lucena, during the proclamation ceremony of his re-election as president for the 2019-2025 period, at the headquarters of the CNE in Caracas, on May 22, 2018. Photo: Federico Parra / AFP / Archive
/«In the end, Lucena Ramírez took control of the residence, and the government (from the United States) tries to prove and argue that this implied a bribery payment For assistance in business related to the choice while she was used in the CNE, ”says the US judicial document.
The tests are presented as part of a broader case against the founder of SmartMatic, a company based in London that has provided services to electoral entities from countries such as Venezuela, Mexico and the United States.
The central case indicates that Piñate and his alleged accomplices, the American Jorge Miguel Vásquez, the American-Israelí Elie Moreno and the Philippine Juan Andrés Donato are accused of having participated in an alleged bribery plan to obtain contracts for the Philippine elections of 2016.
In the United States, Smartmatic won notoriety for demanding for 2.7 billion dollars to the Fox chain per defamation, for false information in which the company was linked to the alleged electoral fraud of 2020, denounced without evidence for the President Donald Trump.
