Maryland officials were informed by the FBI on Thursday that a key vendor used by the Board of Elections has ties to a Russian “oligarch” said to be close to President Vladimir Putin.
The vendor is ByteGrid LLC, which the Board of Elections said in a statement on Friday “hosts the statewide voter registration, candidacy, and election management system, the online voter registration system, online ballot delivery system, and unofficial election night results website.”
“According to the FBI,” the statement continued, “ByteGrid LLC is financed by Altpoint Capital Partners, whose fund manager is a Russian and its largest investor is a Russian oligarch named Vladimir Potanin.”
The state ended up working with ByteGrid in 2015, when the company purchased the Sidus Group, an Anne Arundel County-based web hosting firm, Nikki Charlson, deputy administrator for the elections board, told reporters.
Click here to read the rest the article written by Bruce DePuyt over at Maryland Matters