Brazil’s lower house debated Monday whether to unseat former speaker Eduardo Cunha, who spearheaded the drive to impeach president Dilma Rousseff and now faces his own graft-stained demise.
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In March 2015 Mr Cunha stated that he did not have “any type of account anywhere that is not declared on my income tax”.
According to Brazilian media, Cunha is suspected of having some five million dollars procured from his involvement in the Petrobras scandal secured in undeclared accounts in Switzerland. Prosecutors accuse Cunha of corruption and money laundering for his role in negotiating contracts for drill ships and say he received an illegal payment of $5 million.
Cunha was the main force behind the impeachment process that led to the Senate trying Rousseff and removing her from office last month for illegally shifting funds between budgets. He denies wrongdoing, including accusations by prosecutors he stashed kickbacks in the accounts.
Cunha was long considered one of the best wheelers-and-dealers in Brasilia, building a considerable support base including the powerful agriculture lobby, fellow evangelicals and the so-called “bullet caucus” of politicians with police and army connections. At almost midnight Monday, lawmakers voted to expel Cunha, a move that could lead to a trial against him for his alleged role in a corruption scandal.
If Cunha survives with his political career intact, analysts say that will bolster Rousseff’s argument she was ousted on trumped-up charges of manipulating government accounts in a conspiracy by Cunha and other lawmakers from the ruling Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) seeking to stop the sprawling Petrobras kickback investigation.
He blamed his removal on the impeachment of Rousseff.
Along with his seat he has lost the partial immunity from prosecution that comes with being an elected representative.
The case against Cunha advanced in part because prosecutors charged his wife, Claudia Cruz, after evidence showed a secret bank account linked to Cunha was in her name.
Cuhna’s expulsion from Brazil’s National Congress means he could now face arrest amid an investigation by the Supreme Federal Court.
“This is all because I opened the impeachment proceedings”.
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“On the other side of the street, in the government palace, there are people trembling”, said Maria do Rosario, a congresswoman with Ms Rousseff’s Workers’ Party (PT). “With the sentiment in global financial markets being more negative, the challenges on the economic and political front in Brazil are more in focus”.
