SAO PAULO (AP) – Brazil’s attorney general filed corruption charges Thursday against the speaker of the lower house of congress and against a current senator who was impeached while serving as president in the early 1990s.
The Attorney General’s Office said Chamber of Deputies speaker Eduardo Cunha and Sen. Fernando Collor took part in the sprawling corruption scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras, which ran for over a decade and in which billions in bribes were allegedly paid.
Both Cunha and Collor told the local press that they have done nothing wrong.
Prosecutors said in a statement that Cunha is accused of accepting $5 million in bribes between 2006 and 2012 in connection with the construction of two Petrobras drilling ships. He’s charged with corruption and with money laundering.
No details in the case against Collor were made public. The prosecutor’s office said that was because it is based on accusations from an active informant and revealing details would jeopardize the continuing investigation.