Smartmatic Voting Systems in Venezuela Overiview - started in 2000 in Florida; voting system was "developed entirely in-house."
Q1: Where did it get its financing/R&D Knowledge? Used in 2004 to get Hugo Chavez elected in Venezuela. Hdqrtrs in Boca Raton were moved in 2012 to Amsterdam and London; but is hidden behind holding companies in Holland and the Barbados. Wikileaks says there were about 30 anonymous investors, upper-class Venezuelans. True identity of shareholders "remains a mystery."
Q2: Who are the true owners of Smarmatic and where is its residence for tax purposes? Sequoia, an American co, purchased voting machine business in 1984 of Automatic Voting Machine corp. Developed touch screen voting systems but lost money; was acquired by Smartmatic in 2005 - used by both Cook Co and Florida in 2006, there were problems. So the secretive Cmte on Foreign Investments (CFIUS) investigated.
Q3: Why did Smartmatic reorganize from transparency into holding companies? Nov 2007, CFIUS ordered it to see its shares in Sequoia - but it still retaines some intellectual property rights. Hart InterCivic tried for a hostile takeover in 2008.
