‘Owner of Brazil referendum’ arrested in US is false

It is false that the “owner of Brazilian polls” was arrested by the FBI on suspicion of election fraud. The CEO has alleged in a video that is going viral on WhatsApp smart would have been arrested – but there was no record of an arrest and the company involved did not manufacture the electronic voting machines used in the Brazilian electoral system.

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Smartmatic is a multinational company that actually provided services to the High Electoral Court (TSE) between 2012 and 2016. The company does not supply ballot boxes to Brazil, operates only with the rental of satellite transmission equipment. In 2020, the TSE, faced with rumors that the company had been accused of fraud, explained that the service provided by Smartmatic did not have access to voters’ voting data. “Since the data generated in the ballot box is encrypted and digitally signed, no fraud can be committed,” the court said.

Confronted with the new rumor involving the company, the TSE said that the false information that Smartmatic manufactures Brazilian electronic voting machines has already been refuted several times. “Even if the company produces the physical parts of the equipment, this is not a sign of irregularity, because the parts of the systems created by the manufacturer are made according to the court specifications and are not integrated into the official software without a detailed evaluation of the technical team. “, he contacted.

There is no record of the arrest of Smartmatic chairman Antonio Mugica. In posts echoing the rumour, US channel Fox News was blamed. However, on the TV network’s official website, There were no reports of any alleged arrests.

In fact, the channel echoed complaints about Konnech, a small American election software company that worked on US elections. Konnech chief executive was Eugene Yu He was arrested last week Due to an investigation into possible theft of election workers’ personal information. There is no record of work done by Konnech for TSE.

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As already shown in others Checks made by Estadão, Smartmatic worked in 15 Venezuelan elections between 2004 and 2017. The services were suspended after the company’s CEO, Antonio Mugica, protested that the voter turnout ratio was not consistent with the numbers reported by the Election Commission for the July 30 elections that year. Recorded by the organization – the turnout rate would have been raised by at least one million voters. The company says it serves 5 billion voters in Belgium, Norway, Estonia, the United States, Italy, Armenia, the Philippines, Argentina and Mexico.