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RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Eduardo Cunha, speaker of Brazil's House of Representatives, denied once again on Friday that he has undeclared accounts abroad, despite increasing evidence on the matter.
In an official statement released earlier in the day, he reiterated what was said at the oil giant Petrobras inquiries in March, when he vehemently denied having bank accounts abroad. Meanwhile, he also denied all accusations of participating in a corruption scheme.
Earlier on Friday, a local TV news program showed images of documents sent by the Swiss authorities to Brazil's Federal Prosecution Office, showing copies of Cunha's passport and his wife's and daughter's documents. According to the program, the documents were used to open accounts in Swiss banks.
Swiss prosecutors started investigating Cunha on money laundering and corruption charges against him in April, before they turned over evidence to their Brazilian counterparts, as Cunha, a Brazilian citizen, could not be deported to Switzerland to answer for the charges.
The evidence showed that Cunha has several bank accounts in Switzerland, which have never been declared to the Federal Revenues Department.
Cunha is also being accused of taking a 5-million-U.S.-dollar bride in return for helping a company win contracts to supply Petrobras with drill ships. The money found in the Swiss accounts is believed to have come from the bribes.
He also accused General Prosecutor Rodrigo Janot of persecution and purposefully leaking the documents in order to tarnish his image. Janot's office chose not to give any official response to Cunha's accusation.
