STF Justice authorizes breaching Eduardo Cunha's tax and bank secrecy

Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Teori Zavascki authorized breaching the tax and banking secrecy of the lower house speaker, Deputy Eduardo Cunha, his wife, Cláudia Cruz, and his daughter, Danielle Cunha. The authorization responds to a request made by the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) in an inquiry initiated last year.

On October 2015, Zavascki accepted a request to initiate an investigation against Cunha based on an account information in Switzerland held to belong to him. Cunha's wife and daughter have also been named in the action. The office of the Attorney-General of Switzerland sent documents to Brazil sharing the origin of the money found in the accounts and, according to Operation Car Wash investigators, the amount may come from bribe-taking in a Petrobras contract to purchase an oilfield in Benin, Africa, valued at more than $34 million.

Reaction

In a note, a spokesperson for the Chamber of Deputies' presidency said that the breach of secrecy is a last year's decision. "The disclosed breach of secrecy of the lower house speaker and his family happened more than three months ago, the documents were attached on October 23rd and, as usual, partly leaked to the press; it is not, therefore, a new matter that deserves response," read the note. The statement further declared that Cunha "does not consider the breach of secrecy a problem, and will always be available to the Court to provide any explanation."

The lower house speaker said he had never received any bribe and have also criticized the disclosed information on his equity. "He declared that, contrary to what has been criminally disclosed, the equity variation from 2011 to 2014 shows a loss of R$185,000 [$46,000], properly recorded in the balance sheet."

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta