Smartmatic co-founder and president Roger Piñate surrendered to federal authorities in Miami, Florida on Monday, where he faces charges related to foreign corruption, bribery, and money laundering to secure elections contracts in the Philippines.

Piñate, 49, was charged along with Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, the company’s former VP of hardware development – who also surrendered on Monday.

Piñate posted an $8.5 million dollar bond and was later released, however he did not enter a plea because his defense attorney, Curt Miner, has yet to become his permanent lawyer. Vasquez was released on a $1 million bond. His defense attorney, Frank Rubino, told the Miami Herald “It’s so early in the case, “But we have been aware of this investigation since 2019.“

Oh…

According to the indictment, the alleged co-conspirators financed the bribes by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine used in the elections. To hide their crime, prosecutors say they used coded language to refer to a slush fund used to make the illicit payments – causing the creation of fraudulent contracts and fake loan agreements to make the transfers appear legitimate.

The defendants then allegedly laundered the funds related to the bribery scheme via a constellation of international bank accounts in Asia, Europe and the United States – including in the Southern District of Florida.

Court records, including a Homeland Security Investigations criminal complaint, indicate that Smartmatic’s contracts with the Philippines were worth $199 million for providing voting machines and other services for the May 2016 election for president, vice president and other official positions.

…

Piñate, Vasquez, Bautista and Elie Moreno, 44, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Israel who oversaw Smartmatic’s contracts in the Philippines, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

The defendants each face a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted on the above charges, as well as up to five more years each for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to violate the FCPA.

According to the report, the federal probe in South Florida began with Bautista’s wife – who, while in the middle of a divorce, informed the Philippine National Bureau of lnvestigation that her husband had “large amounts of unexplained wealth,” telling the Bureau’s Anti-Fraud division that her husband had roughly one billion Philippine Pesos, or US$20 million in ill-gotten gains.

Smartmatic was founded in 2000 by Piñate, Antonio Mugica and Alfredo José Anzola – making international headlines after Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez chose the company to replace the country’s voting machines in 2004. In 2006, they acquired Sequoia Voting Systems – though later divested its stake.

According to Smartmatic’s website, Piñate “played a critical role in planning and executing the world’s largest election using optical scanners (in the Philippines) and in Smartmatic winning the largest election contract in US history (in Los Angeles).“

So they admit that the voting machines can be hacked, but they claim it can’t be fixed? 🤨 pic.twitter.com/YvNfE5Udok

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) August 13, 2024

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MIshTalk.com,

Conflicting goals often leads to the worst of both outcomes. That’s what’s happening with solar panels and EVs.

SunPower Went Bankrupt Despite Huge Subsidies

The Wall Street Journal reports Another Green Energy Subsidy Bust

The 39-year-old SunPower is the latest solar rooftop business to fail this year. Others include Titan Solar Power and Sunworks. SunPower cited a “severe liquidity crisis caused by a sharp decline in demand in the solar market and SunPower’s inability to obtain new capital.” The IRA boosted solar subsidies, so why has demand fallen?

One reason is higher interest rates have made rooftop panel leasing less attractive to customers. Some states like California have scaled back programs that pay customers to send solar power they don’t use to the grid. Such subsidies raise the cost of power for people who don’t have panels. In California the grid is often overloaded with solar power.

The cost of panels has also increased amid overall inflation and President Biden’s tariffs, which were backed by domestic manufacturers and Democrats in Congress. Solar installers warned the tariffs would hurt their industry, and they have. Jobs that Mr. Biden’s subsidies giveth, his tariffs and inflation taketh.

Offshore wind projects are also getting scratched because of rising costs and interest rates that make them uneconomic even with subsidies. BP last year wrote down its U.S. offshore wind business by $1.1 billion. Wind developer Orsted last autumn announced $4 billion in write-downs after walking away from two projects off the New Jersey coast.

BP recently scaled back a planned U.S. biofuels investment. Shell this year said it would close its hydrogen refueling stations in California as few people are buying fuel-cell vehicles, and subsidies for hydrogen production have fallen. Talk about stranded assets.

Tariffs and Subsidies Backfire

Biden only wants clean energy if it every piece of it is made in the USA. That means higher costs, even with subsidies.

I commented on this in advance as it was easy to see.

The attempt force production of solar panels in the US resulted in prices so high that few wanted them.

Three Results

• No noticeable increase in US production

• Lost jobs from installers

• No furthering of clean energy goals

Ford is Losing $100,000 on Every EV

Despite subsidies, Here’s the Staggering Amount of Money Ford Loses on Each EV It Makes

• A report says Ford is losing more than $100,000 on each EV.

• Ford is reducing spending on EV plans by $12 billion.

• Ford is estimated to lose $5.5 billion from its Model e division in 2024.

You either want a faster rollout of EVs and clean energy projects or you don’t.

Insisting companies use only made-in-USA components when the infrastructure is not in place and demand is low leads to losses like these.

Unfortunately, we are in for tariff wars no matter who wins the election.

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) posed a series of questions to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeking clarity on the recent arrest of a Pakistani national regarding his attempts to assassinate high-ranking U.S. government officials, allegedly including former President Donald Trump, in light of the fact that he was flagged on a federal watchlist and recently granted immigration parole.

The alleged Pakistani plotter, Asif Raza Merchant, 46, was apprehended on July 12, 2024, when he attempted to leave the United States. Currently in federal custody in New York, Merchant’s plot was foiled when he allegedly conspired with undercover agents, who posed as assassins, to attempt to murder high-ranking U.S. citizens.

The alleged scheme was conducted as part of a larger Iranian ploy to retaliate against the killing of General Qasem Soleimani, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said, according to an Aug. 6 Justice Department (DOJ) statement that revealed the incident. Soleimani was taken down in 2020 during the Trump administration for aiming to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

On Aug. 9, Grassley wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking him for more information regarding Merchant’s immigration parole status. Citing media reports, Grassley said that Merchant was interviewed by the Joint Terrorism Task Force upon his arrival in the United States on April 13 because he was flagged in the federal database as a “Lookout Qualified Person of Interest.”

Despite this, Merchant was granted Significant Public Benefit Parole on April 13 by the DHS, which he overstayed after it expired on May 11, Grassley said. He asked the DHS to provide answers to the following:

1. Did the DHS grant Merchant Significant Public Benefit Parole before or after his placement on the terrorist watchlist and being listed as a “Lookout Qualified Person of Interest”?
2. On what basis was Merchant granted Significant Public Benefit Parole?
3. Provide the entire Alien Registration File (A-File) for Asif Raza Merchant.
4. How many individuals on the Terrorist Screening Database have DHS granted parole and allowed entry into the United States?

Following Merchant’s arrest, Garland said, “The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray said of the incident: “This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s complaint allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook.

“A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any U.S. citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI.”

Assassination Attempts on Trump

The Pakistani national’s plan to assassinate Trump has not been confirmed by federal agencies. The Epoch Times reached out to the DHS and the DOJ for comment regarding the issue. The FBI declined to comment.

According to court documents, Merchant’s plot involved “three different criminal schemes: (1) stealing documents or USB drives from a target’s home; (2) planning a protest; and (3) killing a politician or government official.”

Merchant told the confidential source, an undercover agent, that “trusted” people would be needed to conduct the killing and perform protests after the incident as a distraction, and that they would need “a woman to do ‘reconnaissance.’”

Merchant paid the agent an advance sum of $5,000 to hire hitmen and told him that the final plans would be revealed after Merchant left the country.

He was subsequently arrested on July 12, a day before Trump was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“The failure of the Secret Service in Butler, Pennsylvania, is even more outrageous in light of suspected Iranian-backed assassins targeting former Trump Administration officials, including President Trump himself. That day, the threat of sniper attacks was even higher than normal,” House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said in a statement after the DOJ unsealed its charges against Merchant.

“I was previously briefed concerning the Iranian threat and the circumstances of Mr. Merchant’s arrest and questioned then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on whether she had reviewed the intelligence concerning the Iranian threat. She confirmed to me that she read the intelligence and was aware of this Iranian murder-for-hire plot.”

Authored by Cara Michelle Miller via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Erythritol is a popular choice for those looking to cut down on sugar without losing flavor, but its health effects are often debated. New Cleveland Clinic research reveals a concerning finding: Erythritol makes platelets—blood cells involved in clotting—more active, leading them to react more strongly and increasing the risk of blood clots, heart attack, and stroke.

Cleveland Clinic researchers say this discovery, part of a series exploring the physiological effects of common sugar substitutes, may prompt a reassessment of how we use this sweetener.

The new findings build on the research team’s prior erythritol study. The previous study was limited because some of the participants had poor health, with over 70 percent having cardiovascular issues. The new study addresses these limitations by recruiting healthy adults.

“This research adds to increasing evidence that erythritol raises cardiovascular risk. In a small group of healthy volunteers, we show ingesting erythritol made platelets more hyper-responsive … which can raise the risk of blood clots,” senior and corresponding author Dr. Stanley Hazen, chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences in Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute and co-section head of Preventive Cardiology, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Unlike Sugar, Erythritol Can Promote Excess Blood Clotting

Erythritol is a popular sugar substitute used in many “low-carb” and “keto” foods. It is about 70 percent as sweet as sugar and is produced by fermenting corn or wheat starch. Health and weight-loss professionals often recommend it as a safer alternative to sugar for individuals with high cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome.

Although erythritol is classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority and is naturally found in fruits and vegetables, recent studies by Hazen’s group indicate that consuming typical amounts of erythritol may pose an increased cardiovascular risk.

“This paper builds on our earlier studies with erythritol [published in 2023 in Nature Medicine],” said Hazen, in which large-scale clinical observation studies in the United States and Europe showed that cardiac patients with higher levels of erythritol in their blood were twice as likely to suffer a major cardiac event—such as heart attack, stroke, or death—within the next three years compared to those with lower levels. The study also showed that adding erythritol to blood or platelets increased clot formation. Preclinical studies confirmed these findings.

The previous study had some limitations. Dr. Jayne Morgan, a cardiologist and clinical director of the COVID-19 Task Force at Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta, told The Epoch Times that it was a clinical observation study, which means it could show correlations but not establish causation. Additionally, the study’s participants were in poor health; they were overweight, had high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking habits, and existing cardiovascular issues. So it was unknown if their elevated risks were due to their poor health or due to erythritol consumption.

The new human intervention study, published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, was designed to closely monitor how erythritol ingestion affects platelets at a dose typically contained “in commercial products,” such as an erythritol-sweetened soda or muffin, explained Hazen.

In 20 healthy volunteers—nonsmokers with no cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, or diabetes—blood samples were taken after an overnight fast. Participants then consumed a solution with either 30 grams of glucose or erythritol. Blood samples taken 30 minutes later showed that erythritol levels increased over 1,000 times in those who ingested erythritol.

Results also “revealed participants showed a significant increase in the susceptibility for blood clot formation after consuming erythritol,” according to Hazen. “In stark contrast, no change was observed in participants after consuming a comparable amount of glucose. A significant new finding in these studies was the direct comparison of results with sugar (glucose), which did not have this effect.”

Hazen explained that erythritol makes platelets more responsive, meaning they become more reactive and prone to forming clots. Consequently, even a minor trigger can cause a more robust activation of platelets, increasing the likelihood of blood clots. This heightened responsiveness can lead to excessive clotting.

“This was seen [in the previous paper] in whole blood, with platelet rich plasma, with isolated platelets, in animal models of disease,” he added. “The results of these mechanistic studies are all aligned with the prior large scale clinical observation data showing higher erythritol levels track with higher risk of major adverse cardiac events.”

1 Serving of Erythritol May Trigger Clot Formation

“This research raises some concerns that a standard serving of an erythritol-sweetened food or beverage may acutely stimulate a direct clot-forming effect,” study co-author Dr. W. H. Wilson Tang, research director for Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, said in a press release. “Erythritol and other sugar alcohols that are commonly used as sugar substitutes should be evaluated for potential long-term health effects especially when such effects are not seen with glucose itself.”

He added that these findings are particularly significant because they follow a recent study by the same research group, which found that xylitol, another common sweetener, also increased blood levels and affected how blood cells clump together in healthy volunteers.

Like erythritol, Hazen noted in the email, “the investigations with xylitol also included large-scale clinical observation studies showing that elevation in plasma xylitol levels is associated with increased risk for heart attack, stroke or death over three years of follow-up.”

These findings underscore the importance of further long-term clinical studies to reassess the safety of erythritol and other sugar substitutes, according to both researchers.

The Rise of Erythritol: A ‘Natural’ Alternative to Synthetic Sweeteners

Concerns about the long-term effects of synthetic sweeteners have led many to seek “natural” alternatives like erythritol, a widely used substitute for artificial sweeteners like sucralose (Splenda), saccharin (Sweet’N Low), and aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet).

While these artificial sweeteners were once favored for their calorie-free sweetness, they now face increasing scrutiny. For instance, aspartame has been linked to potential cancer risks, while saccharin has been associated with obesity and diabetes in animal studies.

In May 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised against using nonsugar sweeteners, citing evidence that they do not support long-term weight loss and come with other health risks. The recommendations apply to everyone except those with preexisting diabetes.

Erythritol, on the other hand, is often recommended for diabetics because it doesn’t raise blood sugar levels and reduces dental plaque and tooth decay.

Reconsidering Erythritol: What the Latest Research Means for Your Diet

Based on the evidence, Hazen said, “Choosing sugar-sweetened treats occasionally and in small amounts would be preferable to consuming drinks and foods sweetened with these sugar alcohols, especially for people at elevated risk of thrombosis such as those with heart disease, diabetes or metabolic syndrome.”

He added that future research will “explore how broadly the pro-thrombotic effect is in alternative sugar substitutes. Including both alternative sugar alcohols and common artificial sweeteners.”

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. gun maker Smith & Wesson asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 8 for “immediate review” of its appeal in Mexico’s ongoing $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. firearms companies.

The request was made after a lower court on Aug. 7 threw out the case against six out of eight gun companies in the lawsuit, which is pending in federal district court in Massachusetts. The decision left gun maker Smith & Wesson and gun wholesaler Interstate Arms remaining as defendants.

In the suit, Mexico is seeking $10 billion from U.S. gun companies for allegedly flooding that country with firearms. Mexico blames the companies for a violent crime wave, saying their actions benefited criminal cartels.

Although some gun control activists welcome Mexico’s lawsuit, gun rights advocates say it constitutes foreign interference in U.S. affairs and is aimed at crippling the U.S. firearms industry and weakening the Second Amendment protections enjoyed by Americans.

The gun companies say the suit is barred by the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) of 2005, which was enacted to protect the industry from frivolous lawsuits.

The Supreme Court already is scheduled to consider on Sept. 30 whether to hear the appeal of the eight gun companies called Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

The appeal concerns the Jan. 22 decision of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit that allowed the lawsuit to proceed.

Circuit Judge William Kayatta wrote that even though the PLCAA limits lawsuits that foreign governments may bring in U.S. courts for harm experienced outside the United States, Mexico could move forward because it made a plausible argument that the companies committed “knowing violations of statutes regulating the sale or marketing of firearms.”

Mexico claims that illegal gun trafficking into that country is driven largely by Mexican drug cartels’ demands for military-style weapons.

Kayatta wrote that a spike in gun violence in Mexico in recent years “correlates” with the boost in gun production in the United States that started when the U.S. assault weapon ban lapsed in 2004.

The First Circuit returned the case to U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor of Massachusetts, who had previously dismissed the lawsuit against all eight corporate defendants on Sept. 30, 2022.

Saylor found in 2022 that the PLCAA “unequivocally bars lawsuits seeking to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the acts of individuals using guns for their intended purpose.”

When Saylor revisited the case on Aug. 7, he ruled that Mexico had failed to present enough evidence to show that six of the companies were connected to gun crime in Mexico.

The six defendants Saylor dismissed from the suit are Sturm, Ruger & Co.; Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc.; Glock Inc.; Colt’s Manufacturing Co. LLC; Century International Arms Inc.; and Beretta U.S.A. Corp.

Mexico indicated it may appeal the dismissal decision.

In the meantime, this means that Smith & Wesson and Witmer Public Safety Group, which does business as Interstate Arms, are still named as defendants in the suit pending in Saylor’s court.

In the Aug. 8 filing, Smith & Wesson attorney Noel Francisco of Jones Day in Washington told the Supreme Court that “immediate review … is still needed” because Smith & Wesson and Interstate Arms are “unaffected by” the Aug. 7 decision.

“As a result, Mexico is still pursuing ‘joint and several’ liability—to the tune of billions of dollars, plus far-reaching injunctive relief—against those two defendants,” Francisco wrote.

With joint and several liability, a plaintiff who secures a judgment against the defendants collectively may collect the full value of the judgment from any of the defendants.

“So just as before, leading members of the American firearms industry are facing years of litigation costs and the specter of business-crushing liability,” Francisco wrote.

“And just as before, this Court’s review is warranted now, because Congress made clear in PLCAA that this sort of lawfare against any law-abiding member of the firearms industry has no business in American courts, and must be promptly dismissed.”

Lawfare is the strategic use of legal proceedings to undermine or frustrate the efforts of an opponent.

Mexico argued in a brief that it filed with the Supreme Court on July 3 that the First Circuit’s decision was correct.

The lawsuit should be allowed to proceed because the companies “deliberately chose to engage in unlawful … conduct to profit off the criminal market for their products.”

According to the brief, the gun companies were wrong to argue that the prospect of them being held “liable for negligence and public nuisance” presents “an existential threat to the gun industry.”

Mexico’s attorney, Cate Stetson of Hogan Lovells in Washington, didn’t respond by publication time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Stephen Katte contributed to this report.