Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn who has backed Smartmatic — the company suing Fox for alleged defamation following the 2020 election — is remaining silent in the wake of new bribery allegations against Smartmatic’s co-founder.
Roger Piñate, the co-founder of Smartmatic, allegedly bribed Tibisay Lucena Ramírez in 2019 with a luxury home in Caracas in exchange for helping Smartmatic in a commercial dispute with the Venezuelan government, according to The Miami Herald. This happened after Smartmatic accused President Nicolás Maduro of committing fraud and subsequently ceased operations in the country. Ramírez is the head of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council and, according to The Miami Herald, “wielded broad authority over the country’s controversial voting system and its private vendors.”
The evidence comes to light as Piñate faces charges in Miami for alleged money laundering and bribery related to Philippine contracts. Jorge Vásquez, an executive at the company, was also included in the August 2024 indictment made by a grand jury over allegations of participation in a “bribery and money laundering scheme.”
In light of the bombshell accusations against the Smartmatic co-founder, The Federalist reached out to Hoffman — who has funded Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Fox News — to see whether he would withdraw his support for Smartmatic.
