the idea that companies such as Smartmatic and Dominion were created or influenced by the Venezuelan government to alter election results

1. The documented corporate roots: Smartmatic’s Venezuelan founders and the Sequoia purchase

Smartmatic was founded by Venezuelan engineers and grew by winning contracts in Venezuela; its acquisition of U.S. vendor Sequoia in the mid‑2000s drew scrutiny from U.S. officials because of concerns about possible ties to the Venezuelan government and prompted Congressional queries and a CFIUS review that preceded Sequoia’s sale and Smartmatic shedding its U.S. unit ^{[1] [2] [5]}.

2. Dominion and Smartmatic are separate companies, according to public records and fact checks

Major fact‑checks and company statements state that Dominion and Smartmatic “do not collaborate in any way and have no affiliate relationships or financial ties,” and Dominion has said it does not use Smartmatic software — conclusions repeated in Reuters and Newsweek reporting ^{[3] [4]}. Several outlets and legal actions later described the allegations of a corporate merger or ownership link as false ^[6].

3. How contemporary misinformation married fact to fiction in 2020

After the 2020 U.S. election, commentators and lawyers advanced a narrative that Smartmatic (allegedly founded by Chávez allies) owned or controlled Dominion and that foreign actors thereby manipulated vote tallies. That narrative mixed real facts — Smartmatic’s Venezuelan origins and past controversies — with unproven assertions about cross‑ownership and software sharing; independent analyses and media organizations characterized those assertions as misleading or false ^{[7] [1] [3]}.

4. Legal and reputational fallout has clarified — but not erased — ambiguity

Smartmatic and Dominion have both pursued defamation responses to false public claims: Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion suit against Fox and other defendants over coverage it says misrepresented its role, and Dominion secured a large settlement from Fox; courts and media rulings have constrained some of the earlier public claims ^{[5] [6]}. These actions demonstrate the companies’ insistence there is no ownership or software relationship, even as litigation and criminal investigations elsewhere have raised separate concerns ^{[6] [8]}.

5. Criminal indictments and corruption allegations do not equal a state-directed election plot

U.S. indictments and reporting in 2024–2025 allege that certain Smartmatic executives participated in bribery and procurement fraud tied to Philippine contracts and that one co‑founder was charged in a Miami federal probe; those developments are concrete legal matters about corruption, not proof that the Venezuelan state created or controls these firms to manipulate U.S. vote counts ^{[8] [9]}. Reporting notes these are independent criminal allegations and do not establish a transnational election‑rigging program led by Caracas ^[8].

6. Where the evidence ends: no sourced proof that Venezuela ran or directed U.S. vote manipulation through these vendors

Available sources show Smartmatic’s Venezuelan founders and past links to Venezuelan elections and show U.S. scrutiny of the Sequoia deal, but they do not provide evidence that the Venezuelan government created or controlled Smartmatic or Dominion for the purpose of altering U.S. election results. Major fact‑checks and company denials say Dominion had no ties to Venezuela and did not use Smartmatic software ^{[3] [4]}. If the claim is that Caracas directly orchestrated U.S. vote changes through these companies, those assertions are not supported in the cited reporting ^{[3] [7]}.

7. Competing narratives and motives: politics, profit, and reputational damage

The story has three competing elements in the record: factual corporate history (founders’ nationalities, past sales, CFIUS scrutiny), criminal allegations tied to procurement abroad (indictments reported in 2024), and politically motivated disinformation amplified post‑2020 that conflated those facts into a single conspiracy. Some actors pushed the Venezuela‑plot narrative for political ends; other outlets and the companies themselves pushed back through litigation and public statements ^{[5] [6] [7]}.

8. Bottom line for readers: separate verifiable facts from amplified claims

Readers should accept that Smartmatic has Venezuelan roots and that past U.S. scrutiny led to divestment of Sequoia, and also accept the recent criminal charges involving some Smartmatic executives as reported ^{[1] [2] [8]}. But the specific claim that Venezuela created or controlled Smartmatic and Dominion to alter the 2020 U.S. election — or that Dominion was owned/operated by Smartmatic — is contradicted by fact‑checks and corporate statements in the available reporting ^{[3] [4] [6]}.