Brazil's ex-Speaker faces losing seat

Brazil's lower house was considering whether to expel former Speaker Eduardo Cunha amid accusations that he lied about undeclared Swiss bank accounts, a media report said on Tuesday.

Cunha denies wrongdoing and has said former president Dilma Rousseff's supporters are seeking revenge, the BBC reported.

He has also threatened to reveal compromising information about other politicians.

"This criminal government has been removed thanks to me," he said during the session on Monday, accusing Rousseff's Workers' Party of seeking his removal to bolster her claim that the impeachment process against her had been a "coup".

Cunha was also being investigated by the Supreme Court for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes to secure contracts with state oil giant, Petrobras, the BBC reported.

Petrobras is at the centre of a massive kickbacks scandal which cost the company $2 billion and has led to the arrest of dozens of lawmakers and top businessmen.

At least three businessmen have said under interrogation that they paid bribes to Cunha, which they deposited in his overseas accounts.

In March 2015, Cunha stated that he did not have "any type of account anywhere that is not declared on my income tax", the BBC noted.

But authorities in Switzerland later gave information to a corruption inquiry in Brazil stating that Cunha and his wife, Claudia Cruz, were beneficiaries of secret accounts worth about $5 million.

--IANS

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