Court orders seizure of lower house speaker's Switzerland accounts
Justice Teori Zavascki
Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki issued an order Thursday (Oct. 22) to block and seize 2.4 million Swiss francs, equivalent to $2.3 million, kept in accounts in Switzerland, held to belong to the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha. The ruling complies with a request from the Prosecutor-General's Office (PGR) made last week.
Zavascki has also turned down a request from Cunha's lawyers to keep the investigation against him confidential to avoid further “undue exposure”. In his decision, Zavascki explained that public disclosure of procedural acts is a constitutional principle, and Cunha's case is not among the legal exceptions.
With the money ordered to be brought back to Brazil, the PGR can now investigate whether Cunha and family members of his are guilty of illegal offshore banking by keeping undeclared funds abroad. The investigation relies on a cooperation agreement signed with Switzerland.
Last week, Zavascki launched an inquiry into Cunha's accounts at the behest of the PGR based on information from the Office of the Attorney-General of Switzerland that it found four accounts in the name of the lower house speaker in the European country. According to Brazil's prosecutors, besides Cunha, his wife was one of the beneficiaries of the accounts, where transactions of about $24 million were found to have been made.
The monies are strongly believed to have originated from kickbacks received by Cunha over a Petrobras oil rigging contract in Benin, Africa.
In a statement issued last week, Cunha again denied having offshore accounts and ever having made any illegal gains.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Court orders seizure of lower house speaker's Switzerland accounts
