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Brazil to continue corruption investigation against House speaker

Xinhua, December 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Ethics Council of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, or lower house of parliament, decided Tuesday to continue the corruption investigation against the house speaker, Eduardo Cunha.

Cunha, who is also being investigated by the Brazilian justice system, now has ten working days to present his defense.

According to the charges against him, Cunha stashed 2.4 million U.S. dollars in secret Swiss accounts, which contradicts what he told the Chamber of Deputies in March, when he vowed he had no assets abroad.

Furthermore, the documents sent by the Swiss authorities have reinforced suspicions that Cunha participated in the wide-ranging Petrobras bribery scheme.

On Wednesday morning, federal police officers raided Cunha's official residence in Brasilia and his properties in Rio de Janeiro for evidence of corruption.

However, Cunha has stood firm, vowing on Tuesday that he would not resign, despite the mounting pressure against him. He called the investigation into his finances a "revenge" against him by the government of President Dilma Rousseff after he initiated impeachment proceedings against her two weeks ago. Endi