Smartmatic: “The Constitution Protects Defendants … From Having To Defend Against Such Opaque Charges”
In October 2025, Smartmatic was criminally charged with conspiracy to violate the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions, money laundering conspiracy, and money laundering in connection with an alleged bribery scheme involving the former Chairman of the Commission on Elections of the Philippines. (See here for the prior post).
The allegations involved the same core conduct alleged in a 2024 FCPA enforcement action (still pending) involving two company executives, among others.
This recent post highlighted the DOJ’s response to Smartmatic’s motion to dismiss the indictment on the basis of “vindictive and selective prosecution.”
Defense Counsel Asserts That The DOJ Invented A “Cartel / FCPA Case” As Part Of A “PR Campaign”
This prior post highlighted a recent DOJ FCPA enforcement action concerning an alleged bribery scheme in Mexico.
The indictment charges Ramon Alexandro Rovirosa Martinez (a citizen of Mexico and a lawful permanent resident of Texas) and Mario Alberto Avila Lizarraga (a citizen of Mexico and lawful permanent resident of Texas) for their roles in an alleged bribery scheme to retain and obtain business related to Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the state-owned oil company of Mexico, and PEMEX Exploración y Producción (PEP), PEMEX’s wholly owned exploration and production subsidiary.
Yesterday, Rovirosa’s attorneys (Ryan McConnell, Matthew Boyden, and Lawrence Finder – all former DOJ prosecutors) filed two motions.
The first is a motion to strike the DOJ’s reference (not in the indictment, but in a separate motion) to Rovirosa being associated with Mexican cartels.
Motion For Bill Of Particulars Denied
In August 2024, the DOJ announced that a “federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned an indictment … charging three executives of an election voting machine and service provider company and a former Chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Republic of the Philippines for their roles in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain business related to the 2016 Philippine elections. […] These bribes were allegedly paid to obtain and retain business related to providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections and to secure payments on the contracts, including the release of value added tax payments.”
The company is Smartmatic (and related entities) and the individuals charged with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act offenses were:
FCPA Defendant Wants To Know More About His Alleged Bribery
As highlighted here, in September 2020 the DOJ announced that Javier Aguilar (a former employee of Vitol Inc.) was criminally charged for “his alleged participation in a five-year international bribery and money laundering scheme involving corrupt payments to Ecuadorian officials.” (In December 2020, Vitol resolved a net $90 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action for conduct in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico – see here).
In November 2020, Aguilar filed a motion for a bill of particulars. Generally speaking, a bill of particulars is a request by a criminal defendant for more detailed information about the criminal charges beyond those alleged in the actual charging document. As highlighted here, the judge denied the motion.
Aguilar recently filed a motion for a Second Bill of Particular which states in summary fashion: