EXCLUSIVE: Voting company CEO lied to Chicago officials about firm's Chavez connection

EXCLUSIVE: Voting Machine Company Chief Lied to Chicago Officials About Ownership, Control of Company
Sequoia Voting Systems' CEO, Jack Blaine, Sends Deceptive Letter to Windy City Officials Following 'Evasive' and 'Troublesome' Testimony on his Company's Control by Smartmatic, a Chavez-tied E-Voting Firm
Documents Reveal Officials Sought to Ensure Venezuelan Company's Divestiture of Sequoia Was 'Not a Sham Transaction Designed to Fool Regulators'; Recent Reporting by The BRAD BLOG Reveals That it Was...

-- by Brad Friedman

The CEO and President of one of America's largest voting machine companies, Sequoia Voting Systems, gave both deceptive, and carefully selective answers in his reply to a letter sent earlier this year from two high-ranking officials in Chicago, according to documents and other information revealed during an ongoing investigation by The BRAD BLOG.

Sequoia's chief executive, Jack Blaine, repeated knowingly false answers, at least three different times, in his January 18 response to Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke and the Chair of Chicago's Board of Election Commissioners Langdon D. Neal.

The pair had written to the company on January 11, expressing concerns about the truth behind Sequoia's claims that they had completely divested from their purportedly "former" parent company, Smartmatic, the Venezuelan-run firm with direct ties to Hugo Chavez and his government.

Following what they described as "evasive" and "troublesome" sworn testimony last year from Blaine, the officials wrote, "It is therefore important to confirm that the sale of Sequoia by Smartmatic is not a sham transaction designed to fool regulators and to further confirm that Smartmatic and the government of Venezuela have no ability to influence or control the new owners of Sequoia."

A recent series of exclusive BRAD BLOG investigative reports, however, has revealed that the sale of Sequoia by Smartmatic, which succeeded in moving federal investigators from CFIUS to end their official review of the nexus between the two firms, was indeed, not what it was made out to be.

Blaine's written responses to the Chicago officials -- and his curious failure to respond at all to one key question while offering answers, accurate or otherwise, to all the others --- suggest that the CEO and president of one of the nation's largest voting machine companies blatantly attempted to mislead the elected officials overseeing one of the firm's most lucrative contracts.

And if you may think they were the only two officials from the Windy City that Blaine has recently been less than forthcoming with as he desperately tries to save his floundering company, then apparently you don't know Jack...

BRAD BLOG'S FULL INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6005

Did this one scroll down that quick? Or is nobody concerned about the CEO of one of America's largest voting machine company's lying about his company to election officials, and about the company's direct control by a firm partly owned by Hugo Chavez?