Brazilian lawmakers vote to strip ex-speaker of his seat
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted overwhelmingly late Monday to strip the legislative seat of its former speaker amid accusations of corruption and obstruction of justice.
The Chamber of Deputies voted 450 to 10 to remove Eduardo Cunha after hours of debate, adding him to a growing list of politicians and business executives who have been felled by Brazil’s sprawling corruption scandals. Nine legislators abstained.
Cunha has been accused by Brazilian prosecutors of receiving millions of dollars in bribes linked to the mammoth corruption scandal at state-run oil giant Petrobras. But the issue before the Chamber of Deputies was only whether he lied about having secret banking accounts in Switzerland.
Cunha, who said the accounts belonged to a trust, was pressured into resigning as speaker after the accounts came to light, but he had refused to give up his post as a lawmaker. He was in his fourth term.