His Legal Battle Might Cripple Fox News — Assuming He Wins the PR Fight
Following a recent settlement with Newsmax, Smartmatic’s CEO prepares for a wave of accusations regarding corruption, dictators, and polyamory.
TroibNews 
To address a campaign of disinformation, the CEO of Smartmatic, a voting machine company, may be forced to confront a different array of unpleasant narratives — including allegations of corporate bribery, connections to a foreign dictator, and his involvement with a threesome hookup app called Feeld.
Antonio Mugica, whose company has been targeted by baseless conspiracy theories from the far right regarding the 2020 election's integrity, reached a confidential settlement last week in his defamation lawsuit against Newsmax, following another confidential agreement with OAN months earlier. However, he is set to appear in court next year to pursue a case against Fox News, the largest conservative network, which Smartmatic is suing for $2.7 billion over purported false statements related to former President Donald Trump’s defeat.
This ongoing legal battle is also playing out in the public sphere. Following the announcement of the Newsmax settlement, Fox News issued a statement seemingly unrelated to the question of Smartmatic's alleged defamation: “Smartmatic’s President and Co-Founder, as well as one current and one former executive, were federally indicted for bribery” concerning a Philippine government contract.
Fox’s communication strategy mirrors tactics employed by Newsmax, which until its settlement, focused on topics largely disconnected from 2020. Just days prior, the pro-Trump network criticized Mugica’s firm, referring to it as “the preferred election company for Venezuela’s brutal Chavez/Maduro regime” and argued that the court should never have permitted “a company with such a sordid reputation to pursue a defamation claim against a media company.”
As Fox and Smartmatic prepare for the impending legal confrontation, it’s expected that similar rhetoric will continue to surface.
Defamation suits hinge on the notion that a plaintiff possesses a good reputation that can be tarnished, which often leads adversarial parties to disclose unflattering information prior to trial. Mugica’s public relations team is aware of this dynamic, which is likely why our conversation last month ventured into uncomfortable territory, addressing the bribery allegations, historical connections to the autocratic late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and Mugica's personal views on monogamy as they relate to his investments in dating apps.
On the surface, these matters might appear to stray from the core question of whether a news entity injured Mugica's business through untrue claims about the 2020 election. However, in practical terms, they may become significant.
Political trials increasingly resemble political campaigns, complete with strategic communications, opposition research, and substantial financial resources. Those familiar with the lawsuit against Fox suggest that Smartmatic may incur costs exceeding $100 million to pursue it. With Dominion Voting Systems having secured almost $1 billion in a similar case against Fox last year, this litigation could prove to be a wise investment for Smartmatic.
“The business of power is messy,” Mugica said. “Politics is messy. It’s definitely an extreme sport. And unfortunately for us, we’re in the middle of it.”
Winning in this challenging arena may require discussing some unsavory aspects that are likely to emerge as the trial approaches.
While the claims that Smartmatic manipulated the 2020 elections are unfounded, there are factual elements related to the company’s operations in Venezuela, where Mugica and his co-founders originated. One notable instance was a recall election won by Chavez. “There are a million reasons to criticize President Chavez,” Mugica remarked. “I think for me, the biggest one is, he destroyed the country. But one thing that he didn’t do is he didn’t tamper with these results.”
Conversely, when opposition factions boycotted a national assembly election under Chavez's successor, Nicolás Maduro, Mugica alerted authorities to the regime's skewed voter turnout figures. “And, of course, immediately we were politically persecuted out of the country,” he explained, highlighting how the firm relocated many local employees as a result. “I have never been able to return to Venezuela.”
In addition, Mugica stated that the regime failed to pay Smartmatic $100 million owed and expropriated its local business, a narrative that his team believes complicates attempts to portray him as complicit in the dictatorship's actions. Nevertheless, questions regarding Venezuela are prominently featured in Fox's filings related to the case.
The indictments in the Philippines, which garnered significant media attention this summer, are poised to arise again during the trial. Federal prosecutors allege that three Smartmatic executives, including president and co-founder Roger Pinate, breached the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by conspiring to funnel $1 million to the head of the country's election commission to secure a lucrative contract.
Although the company itself was not indicted, and the alleged misconduct did not pertain to election tampering, the situation appears dubious — just the type of narrative a defense attorney would leverage to counter Smartmatic's claims of reputational harm.
When discussing the allegations, Mugica exercised caution. “I’m not aware of that being true,” he said regarding the alleged bribe. “I’m very confident that my executives are going to clear their names.” He expressed skepticism about the circumstances surrounding the alleged bribe, including its amount, timing, and context, emphasizing that the case has yet to be adjudicated.
When it comes to reputational matters, the nuances of a federal indictment may hold little sway in public perception.
The same applies to seemingly unrelated aspects of Mugica’s personal life and investment portfolio. For instance, Feeld, a dating app promoting “polyamory, consensual non-monogamy, homo- and heteroflexibility, pansexuality, asexuality, aromanticism, voyeurism, and kink,” as described on its website, counts Mugica among its leading investors. He commends it as a female-led initiative addressing a niche community that aligns with his personal views.
“I’ve always been more of an open-relationship type of person,” Mugica, a separated father of two, said. “That’s one of the reasons the couple that founded this company came to me, and I thought, look, there is a big market of people that have more of an open mind about these things. … And it proved to be right,” noting the app’s rapid growth.
So far, Mugica's association with Feeld has not been part of any pretrial media campaign; however, he anticipates that may change as the trial approaches. One coincidental detail that could complicate efforts to negatively associate him with Feeld: a high-profile 2021 Vanity Fair article titled “Three-Way Sex With Couples Has Made Me a Better Person,” written by Caroline Rose Giuliani, the daughter of Rudy Giuliani, who is also a focus of Smartmatic's defamation lawsuits.
“It’s been very tough because I’m running the business at the same time that I need to manage the litigation against Fox and Newsmax,” Mugica shared. “What I tell my friends is, it’s not the legal battle, which I think I have an excellent team of lawyers, but it is more the invisible battle that happens under the table, people trying to bring you down. … These are the things that have really taken the fight to a different level.”
Mugica has not sought to raise funds specifically for the litigation, but Smartmatic recently secured a multimillion-dollar investment from Reid Hoffman, the billionaire founder of LinkedIn and a Democratic donor. An advisor to Hoffman stated that the investment represented a solid business opportunity and was also a means “to provide capital that would allow the truth to be found in the courts.”
Ironically, London-based Smartmatic has historically conducted minimal business in the United States. In 2020, its only contract involved Los Angeles County, far removed from the states where Trump supporters alleged electoral fraud. Nonetheless, Mugica noted that the prevailing misinformation has “obliterated” the company’s business, which experienced its poorest revenue year in 21 years.
“To take the biggest company in the election technology space that has never had a breach in 25 years, and to say they rigged the U.S. election is devastating,” Mugica asserted, arguing that the falsehoods curtailed numerous opportunities after Smartmatic had invested millions into growth. “I think that lie was actually devastating not only for our company. It was devastating for the industry as a whole. So many countries that wanted to bring technology into their elections said, ‘We don't want to be in that situation.’”
In its complaint, Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion for economic and reputational damages, along with punitive damages that could theoretically escalate the total to between $5.4 billion and $8.1 billion, given that there’s no cap on punitive damages in New York.
However, potential claimants should be cautious before anticipating vast sums: Prior to the settlement with Newsmax, a judge had ruled out punitive damages in that case, stating the network had not intended to harm Smartmatic despite airing false assertions. The Fox suit, of course, involves a different entity and jurisdiction.
Fox News has denied any defamatory actions, arguing that the lawsuit against a news organization reporting on allegations threatens free speech. “Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on their face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms,” stated the company.
Mugica, who lived in the U.S. for a decade and frequently visits relatives there, expressed confidence in the American legal system.
Nonetheless, the aftermath of the 2020 election has imbued a sense of peril in the U.S., something Mugica never anticipated. Proponents of election denialism have rallied outside Smartmatic’s U.S. offices, while anonymous emails and messages have sent threats to employees. One such message read, “Location acquired … here we come,” and the company’s Los Angeles office received a package containing photos of dismembered bodies. “The 14-year-old son of my co-founder received a call saying, ‘We’re going to kill you and your family for what you have done,’” Mugica recounted.
When asked to compare the U.S. to other nations where Smartmatic operates, he offered a perspective worth considering.
“We’ve participated in elections in, I think, 37 countries, many of them in the developing world — immature democracies, or whatever you want to call them,” he explained. “Like Venezuela, which is not a democracy anymore. Or the Philippines or Kenya, places that are definitely at a different stage in their democracies and in their socioeconomic development. And I think what’s been happening in the U.S. recently, and more specifically with the last election, was kind of a regression into that stage. So the U.S. has basically behaved as if it was any other developing country on the political front.”
Navid Kalantari contributed to this report for TROIB News
Antonio Mugica, whose company has been targeted by baseless conspiracy theories from the far right regarding the 2020 election's integrity, reached a confidential settlement last week in his defamation lawsuit against Newsmax, following another confidential agreement with OAN months earlier. However, he is set to appear in court next year to pursue a case against Fox News, the largest conservative network, which Smartmatic is suing for $2.7 billion over purported false statements related to former President Donald Trump’s defeat.
This ongoing legal battle is also playing out in the public sphere. Following the announcement of the Newsmax settlement, Fox News issued a statement seemingly unrelated to the question of Smartmatic's alleged defamation: “Smartmatic’s President and Co-Founder, as well as one current and one former executive, were federally indicted for bribery” concerning a Philippine government contract.
Fox’s communication strategy mirrors tactics employed by Newsmax, which until its settlement, focused on topics largely disconnected from 2020. Just days prior, the pro-Trump network criticized Mugica’s firm, referring to it as “the preferred election company for Venezuela’s brutal Chavez/Maduro regime” and argued that the court should never have permitted “a company with such a sordid reputation to pursue a defamation claim against a media company.”
As Fox and Smartmatic prepare for the impending legal confrontation, it’s expected that similar rhetoric will continue to surface.
Defamation suits hinge on the notion that a plaintiff possesses a good reputation that can be tarnished, which often leads adversarial parties to disclose unflattering information prior to trial. Mugica’s public relations team is aware of this dynamic, which is likely why our conversation last month ventured into uncomfortable territory, addressing the bribery allegations, historical connections to the autocratic late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and Mugica's personal views on monogamy as they relate to his investments in dating apps.
On the surface, these matters might appear to stray from the core question of whether a news entity injured Mugica's business through untrue claims about the 2020 election. However, in practical terms, they may become significant.
Political trials increasingly resemble political campaigns, complete with strategic communications, opposition research, and substantial financial resources. Those familiar with the lawsuit against Fox suggest that Smartmatic may incur costs exceeding $100 million to pursue it. With Dominion Voting Systems having secured almost $1 billion in a similar case against Fox last year, this litigation could prove to be a wise investment for Smartmatic.
“The business of power is messy,” Mugica said. “Politics is messy. It’s definitely an extreme sport. And unfortunately for us, we’re in the middle of it.”
Winning in this challenging arena may require discussing some unsavory aspects that are likely to emerge as the trial approaches.
While the claims that Smartmatic manipulated the 2020 elections are unfounded, there are factual elements related to the company’s operations in Venezuela, where Mugica and his co-founders originated. One notable instance was a recall election won by Chavez. “There are a million reasons to criticize President Chavez,” Mugica remarked. “I think for me, the biggest one is, he destroyed the country. But one thing that he didn’t do is he didn’t tamper with these results.”
Conversely, when opposition factions boycotted a national assembly election under Chavez's successor, Nicolás Maduro, Mugica alerted authorities to the regime's skewed voter turnout figures. “And, of course, immediately we were politically persecuted out of the country,” he explained, highlighting how the firm relocated many local employees as a result. “I have never been able to return to Venezuela.”
In addition, Mugica stated that the regime failed to pay Smartmatic $100 million owed and expropriated its local business, a narrative that his team believes complicates attempts to portray him as complicit in the dictatorship's actions. Nevertheless, questions regarding Venezuela are prominently featured in Fox's filings related to the case.
The indictments in the Philippines, which garnered significant media attention this summer, are poised to arise again during the trial. Federal prosecutors allege that three Smartmatic executives, including president and co-founder Roger Pinate, breached the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by conspiring to funnel $1 million to the head of the country's election commission to secure a lucrative contract.
Although the company itself was not indicted, and the alleged misconduct did not pertain to election tampering, the situation appears dubious — just the type of narrative a defense attorney would leverage to counter Smartmatic's claims of reputational harm.
When discussing the allegations, Mugica exercised caution. “I’m not aware of that being true,” he said regarding the alleged bribe. “I’m very confident that my executives are going to clear their names.” He expressed skepticism about the circumstances surrounding the alleged bribe, including its amount, timing, and context, emphasizing that the case has yet to be adjudicated.
When it comes to reputational matters, the nuances of a federal indictment may hold little sway in public perception.
The same applies to seemingly unrelated aspects of Mugica’s personal life and investment portfolio. For instance, Feeld, a dating app promoting “polyamory, consensual non-monogamy, homo- and heteroflexibility, pansexuality, asexuality, aromanticism, voyeurism, and kink,” as described on its website, counts Mugica among its leading investors. He commends it as a female-led initiative addressing a niche community that aligns with his personal views.
“I’ve always been more of an open-relationship type of person,” Mugica, a separated father of two, said. “That’s one of the reasons the couple that founded this company came to me, and I thought, look, there is a big market of people that have more of an open mind about these things. … And it proved to be right,” noting the app’s rapid growth.
So far, Mugica's association with Feeld has not been part of any pretrial media campaign; however, he anticipates that may change as the trial approaches. One coincidental detail that could complicate efforts to negatively associate him with Feeld: a high-profile 2021 Vanity Fair article titled “Three-Way Sex With Couples Has Made Me a Better Person,” written by Caroline Rose Giuliani, the daughter of Rudy Giuliani, who is also a focus of Smartmatic's defamation lawsuits.
“It’s been very tough because I’m running the business at the same time that I need to manage the litigation against Fox and Newsmax,” Mugica shared. “What I tell my friends is, it’s not the legal battle, which I think I have an excellent team of lawyers, but it is more the invisible battle that happens under the table, people trying to bring you down. … These are the things that have really taken the fight to a different level.”
Mugica has not sought to raise funds specifically for the litigation, but Smartmatic recently secured a multimillion-dollar investment from Reid Hoffman, the billionaire founder of LinkedIn and a Democratic donor. An advisor to Hoffman stated that the investment represented a solid business opportunity and was also a means “to provide capital that would allow the truth to be found in the courts.”
Ironically, London-based Smartmatic has historically conducted minimal business in the United States. In 2020, its only contract involved Los Angeles County, far removed from the states where Trump supporters alleged electoral fraud. Nonetheless, Mugica noted that the prevailing misinformation has “obliterated” the company’s business, which experienced its poorest revenue year in 21 years.
“To take the biggest company in the election technology space that has never had a breach in 25 years, and to say they rigged the U.S. election is devastating,” Mugica asserted, arguing that the falsehoods curtailed numerous opportunities after Smartmatic had invested millions into growth. “I think that lie was actually devastating not only for our company. It was devastating for the industry as a whole. So many countries that wanted to bring technology into their elections said, ‘We don't want to be in that situation.’”
In its complaint, Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion for economic and reputational damages, along with punitive damages that could theoretically escalate the total to between $5.4 billion and $8.1 billion, given that there’s no cap on punitive damages in New York.
However, potential claimants should be cautious before anticipating vast sums: Prior to the settlement with Newsmax, a judge had ruled out punitive damages in that case, stating the network had not intended to harm Smartmatic despite airing false assertions. The Fox suit, of course, involves a different entity and jurisdiction.
Fox News has denied any defamatory actions, arguing that the lawsuit against a news organization reporting on allegations threatens free speech. “Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on their face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms,” stated the company.
Mugica, who lived in the U.S. for a decade and frequently visits relatives there, expressed confidence in the American legal system.
Nonetheless, the aftermath of the 2020 election has imbued a sense of peril in the U.S., something Mugica never anticipated. Proponents of election denialism have rallied outside Smartmatic’s U.S. offices, while anonymous emails and messages have sent threats to employees. One such message read, “Location acquired … here we come,” and the company’s Los Angeles office received a package containing photos of dismembered bodies. “The 14-year-old son of my co-founder received a call saying, ‘We’re going to kill you and your family for what you have done,’” Mugica recounted.
When asked to compare the U.S. to other nations where Smartmatic operates, he offered a perspective worth considering.
“We’ve participated in elections in, I think, 37 countries, many of them in the developing world — immature democracies, or whatever you want to call them,” he explained. “Like Venezuela, which is not a democracy anymore. Or the Philippines or Kenya, places that are definitely at a different stage in their democracies and in their socioeconomic development. And I think what’s been happening in the U.S. recently, and more specifically with the last election, was kind of a regression into that stage. So the U.S. has basically behaved as if it was any other developing country on the political front.”
Navid Kalantari contributed to this report for TROIB News
