Brazil Supreme Court seizes $2.45 million in lower house speaker's alleged kickback cash
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - In this Aug.21, 2015 file photo, Eduardo Cunha, president of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, attends a meeting with union workers in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Brazil's Supreme Court seized $2.45 million in Swiss accounts allegedly belonging to Cunha, a powerful political figure who can largely determine whether widely sought impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff are introduced on the chamber floor. Cunha is facing corruption charges in a huge kickback scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File) (The Associated Press)
Brazil's Supreme Court has seized $2.45 million in Swiss accounts identified as belonging to the leader of congress' lower house and his wife.
The court says the money purportedly belonging to Chamber of Deputies Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who has been implicated in a big kickback scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras, will be transferred to an account of Brazil's judiciary.
Cunha is the sworn nemesis of embattled President Dilma Rousseff and largely controls whether or not long-sought impeachment proceedings against her are introduced in the lower house.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He denies that the accounts in the Julius Baer bank are his. But documents sent by Swiss prosecutors link him and his wife to the accounts, Justice Teori Zavascki said in a Thursday ruling.