Cunha is expected to resign as Speaker of the House on Monday.
Under pressure from allies to resign from his position as Speaker of the House, a post he has already been suspended from by the Supreme Federal Court, Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ) will meet with leaders of his base next Monday, the 20th, when he is also expected to make a statement. Resistant to the idea, Cunha may have been influenced by recent events, such as Judge Sérgio Moro's decision to indict his wife, Cláudia Cruz, in the Lava Jato corruption scandal, and the advancement of the impeachment process in the House to the plenary, where it will certainly be defeated. The meeting on Monday is scheduled to discuss "a way out" for the congressman; rumors in recent days have even suggested he is considering a plea bargain.
247 - About to lose his mandate, the suspended president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), summoned leaders and allies for a meeting this Monday (20) with the objective of discussing a way out of his delicate situation. The parliamentarian is expected to make a statement the following day, Tuesday, at a hotel in Brasília. The idea is that members of his base will reinforce the proposal that he resign from his position to focus on his defense. According to behind-the-scenes information, Cunha may make a plea bargain, which, if it happens, will shake the Michel Temer government.
The congressman, who is the target of three accusations, has reportedly said that if he falls, he will take down with him about 150 deputies, plus a minister and a senator, according to the column by Andreza Matais and Marcello de Moraes, published in Estado last week. Cunha, however, denies that he will make a plea bargain.
For Monday's meeting, leaders of the Centrão bloc, Aguinaldo Ribeiro (PP), Rogério Rosso (PSD), and Jovair Arantes (PTB), have already been summoned, as well as those considered loyal to Cunha, such as Paulinho da Força (SD-SP) and Carlos Marun (PMDB-MS).
The suspended Speaker of the House was the target of a process for breach of parliamentary decorum. He said, in his testimony to the Petrobras Parliamentary Inquiry Commission in March 2015, that he did not have accounts abroad. But documents sent by Swiss authorities to the Attorney General's Office (PGR) indicated that he maintained at least four accounts in the European country.
In March of this year, the PMDB member became a defendant in the first criminal case in the Supreme Federal Court (STF) originating from the investigations of Operation Lava Jato, because on the 3rd of that month, the Supreme Federal Court (STF) accepted, by a vote of 10 to 0, the indictment of the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, against Eduardo Cunha for passive corruption and money laundering. The PMDB member is accused of demanding and receiving at least US$ 5 million in bribes from a contract between the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard and Petrobras.
The plenary session of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) will judge on June 22 the second complaint filed by the Attorney General's Office against Cunha, precisely the one related to bank accounts abroad, a source with knowledge of the progress of the action told Reuters on Tuesday (14).
In addition to the accusation of negotiating bribes for the shipyard contract and lying to the Petrobras CPI by denying having accounts abroad, Cunha faces a third accusation. One of the informants in 'Lava Jato', businessman Ricardo Pernambuco Júnior, from Carioca Engenharia, stated that companies linked to the construction of Porto Maravilha, in Rio de Janeiro, would have to pay R$ 52 million in bribes [about 1,5% of the total value of the Certificates of Potential for Construction Area (Cepac)] to Cunha (see here).
Cunha's wife will become a defendant in Lava Jato.
Earlier this month, Judge Sérgio Moro accepted the Lava Jato task force's indictment against Cunha's wife, journalist Claudia Cruz, accused of money laundering and tax evasion. According to the investigations, there is evidence that part of the bribes diverted from Petrobras was deposited into offshore accounts and trusts used to pay for international credit cards used by Claudia Cruz. Cunha's daughter, Danielle Dytz, was not indicted, but is under investigation, according to the task force.
Investigations revealed that Cláudia was aware of the crimes she was committing and was the sole controller of the account in the name of the offshore company Köpek, in Switzerland, through which she paid credit card expenses abroad. Between 2008 and 2014, she spent more than US$1 million. The indictment by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) pointed out that the spending was "totally incompatible with her and Cunha's salaries and legitimate assets." Almost all the money deposited in Köpek (99,7%) originated from the Triumph SP (US$1.050.000,00), Netherton (US$165) and Orion SP (US$60) accounts, all belonging to Eduardo Cunha.
Also indicted were the former director of the state-owned company's international area, Jorge Luiz Zelada, for passive corruption; the Portuguese businessman and owner of CBH, Idalécio de Castro Rodrigues de Oliveira, accused of active corruption and money laundering; and the operator João Augusto Rezende Henriques, accused of money laundering, tax evasion, and passive corruption.