The US Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed in a court filing that it will continue to prosecute executives at the voting machine company Smartmatic Corp. over an alleged foreign bribery and money laundering scheme associated with a bid to win business in the Philippines.

Prosecutors stated in their Notice of Authorization to Proceed that the DOJ had conducted a detailed review of the instant case as contemplated by Executive Order 14209 and had still decided to proceed to trial. (In that executive order, issued in February, President Trump announced he was pausing enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and directed DOJ to review ongoing FCPA investigations and court actions.)

If that was not interesting enough, this move comes just a week after the Department dropped a separate FCPA case in New Jersey against two former executives at Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp the day before the trial was due to start.

The Justice Department “conducted a detailed review of the instant case” and “intends to proceed to trial,” prosecutors said in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The filing did not explain what the review entailed or how the department reached its decision.

Bribes and contracts

According to the DOJ and the documents filed in the case so far, between May 2015 and February 2018, Roger Alejando Pinate Martinez (Pinate), co-founder, Chief Operating Officer, and President of Smartmatic, and Jorge Miguel Vasquez, an executive for a subsidiary that managed hardware development and manufacturing worldwide for Smartmatic, conspired with others to bribe the chairman of an agency called COMELEC that was administering elections in the Philippines named Jorge Miguel Vasquez.

The DOJ claims they paid the $1m to Bautista to obtain three separate contracts – worth approximately $182,351,868 – to provide thousands of voting machines to the Philippines in connection with the country’s 2016 elections for President, Vice President, and other positions.

As part of the conspiracy, the DOJ alleges that the four defendants attempted to conceal the bribes by using fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements with various shell companies and using coded language to refer to a slush fund they used to pay the bribes.

On August 8, 2024, the DOJ filed a four count indictment in the Southern District of Florida against Bautista, Pinate, Vasquez, and another Smartmatic executive named Moreno who managed the COMELEC contracts, alleging conspiracies to violate the FCPA and commit money laundering. Pinate and Vazquez’s trial is scheduled to start on October 10, 2025.

On March 12, 2025, the defendants moved for a continuance of pending deadlines while the DOJ reviewed the case in light of President Trump’s executive order pausing enforcement of the FCPA. On March 25, the court granted the motion, extending the deadlines for 30 days, and then came this announcement.

Lawyers mystified

Vasquez’s lawyer Frank Rubino told Bloomberg Government News that “we’re mystified as to why they dismissed the New Jersey case but not our case.” He added: “It seems they’re taking an inconsistent position.” Lawyers for the defendants have contacted the DOJ requesting more information.

When the charges were first brought by the Biden DOJ, Smartmatic said in a statement shared on X that it had placed Piñate and Moreno on leave and that they are “innocent until proven guilty.”

The company is currently suing Fox News over debunked claims the network spread that it rigged the 2020 election against Trump, asking for a $2.7 billion defamation payout.

Last September, it settled a defamation suit against Newsmax Media over Newsmax’s public broadcasts that similarly claimed the voting technology company played a role in rigging the 2020 election.

What does it mean?

Is the FCPA a viable tool in the DOJ’s enforcement toolbox, after all – even in cases not involving transnational criminal organizations or cartels?

Or is it possible that moving forward with this case constitutes a retaliatory move against executives from a company that two notable conservative media outlets (among other conservative groups, political figures and President Trump himself) have associated with a “rigged” 2020 election? It is very difficult to gauge given the absence of reliable information.

Either way, it’s a reminder that the DOJ has not fully abandoned a law that remains on the books and would take an act of Congress to revoke or alter. And that US law enforcement resources will continue to be deployed to enforce it.

In short: bribery is still illegal in the US and in many other nations in the world.