Above Photo: Former speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress Eduardo Cunha is now one of the most unpopular politicians in the country. | Photo: AFP
Federal authorities have summoned Eduardo Cunha, the controversial former head of Congress and chief mastermind behind the impeachment bid against ousted President Dilma Rousseff, to face charges over accusations he hid laundered money in secret Swiss bank accounts while he was in office.
The subpoena was issued by federal Judge Sergio Moro, who has led the investigations known asOperation Car Wash into corruption in the state-run oil company Petrobras. Moro rejected a complaint regarding the charges from Attorney General Rodrigo Janot Thursday and filed the summons on Monday.
Cunha’s legal team has 10 days to present his defense.
Cunha, a member of unelected President Michel Temer’s PMDB party, is accused of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion linked to raking in at least US$5 million in illicit kickbacks between 2006 and 2012 and hiding the wealth in Swiss bank accounts.
The controversial lawmaker was also implicated in the Panama Papers earlier this year. The leak revealed that Portuguese business baron Idalecio de Castro Rodrigues de Oliveira, who wired at least US$1.5 million to Cunha’s Swiss account in 2011 through a PMDB lobbyist as an intermediary, owned a conglomerate of 14 companies registered in the British Virgin Islands from 2003 and 2011. According to the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists, 12 of Oliveira’s 14 offshore companies were incorporated “just months before” he entered in partnership with Petrobras, at the center of the massive Operation Car Wash scandal.
The controversial lawmaker was also implicated in the Panama Papers earlier this year. The leak revealed that Portuguese business baron Idalecio de Castro Rodrigues de Oliveira, who wired at least US$1.5 million to Cunha’s Swiss account in 2011 through a PMDB lobbyist as an intermediary, owned a conglomerate of 14 companies registered in the British Virgin Islands from 2003 and 2011. According to the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists, 12 of Oliveira’s 14 offshore companies were incorporated “just months before” he entered in partnership with Petrobras, at the center of the massive Operation Car Wash scandal.