“I have never heard of this absurd process, precisely because it is absurd and empty,” said the recently appointed Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, on the day the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) confirmed that the conditions were in force in the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) “an investigation investigating matters related to the so-called lithium and green hydrogen companies”.
At the time, on January 3, quoted by the Público newspaper, the PGR guaranteed that no defendants had yet been charged.
But this Tuesday the investigation was led by three DCIAP prosecutors, João Paulo Centeno, Hugo Neto and Ricardo Lamascaused a political earthquake, with the the resignation of Prime Minister António Costa, after learning through a statement from the PGR that it was the target of an independent Supreme Court (STJ) investigation into the matter. The high severity of the criminal behavior investigated, not only because of the criminal law framework, but also because of the social damage it entails, was the reason for the searches.
According to the PGR, the criminal offenses, active and passive corruption of political office holders and the exercise of influence.
The investigation focuses on the lithium exploration concessions in the Romano (Montalegre) and Barroso (Boticas) mines, a hydrogen energy production project in Sines and the construction project for a “data center” developed in the Industrial and Logistics Zone of Sines by the company ” Start Campus”.
Unreleased searches
António Costa, who had already been identified in 2020 in a telephone tap, validated by the STJ for the MP’s investigation, in conversation with the then Minister of the Environment, Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes, over the lithium and green hydrogen sectors, has now arrested two people very close to him: his chief of staff, Vitor Escariaand his witness and advisor Diogo Lacerda Machadowho worked for Start Campus.
According to judicial sources who had access to the basis of the search warrantssigned by the three aforementioned lawyers on October 25, Lacerda Machado reportedly contacted Vítor Escária several times so that he could intervene with members of the government to unlock Start Campus’ interests.
To justify the unprecedented searches in S.Bento DCIAP claimed to have evidence that several meetings took place between this advisor, the Startcampus manager who was also detained, Afonso Salemaand Escária, in his office, in the Prime Minister’s official residence.
The prosecutors thought so too searches of the PS headquartersin Largo do Rato, Lisbon, because he had information – largely through telephone taps – that Escária and Salema met there.
Lunches and dinners
A total of five were arrested, including the chairman of the Sines municipal council. João Galamba and the president of the Portuguese Environmental Association, Nuno Lacasta, were named as suspects.
As alleged during the trial, there was constant pressure and influence on the companies to achieve their objectives, including several dinners and lunches paid for by Start Campus administrators to João Galamba. According to the investigation, which began in 2020, it targeted then-former Minister of the Environment, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, and then-Secretary of State for Energy, João Galamba.
This process was exposed by the magazine Sábado, in which, among others, the former Minister of Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, investigated the figures for “influence peddling, corruption and other economic and financial crimes” in alleged favoritism towards an EDP/GALP/REN consortium for the production of green hydrogen.
O involvement of former minister Matos Fernandes It will also be related to its action in the processes of approval of legislation in the field of waste.
After leaving the government, the judicial sources mentioned above point out, he was hired by Abreu Advogados, where he advises several waste companies and the Association of Non-hazardous Waste Management Companies, areas he directly supervised within the government.
This law firm would in fact have been confirmed by prosecutors as Nuno Lacasta’s fate when he left APA. A situation that will be referred to in the process and that is also the subject of research to determine the motivations and benefits.
According to the research, the influences had their consequences complicity of leaders of different organizations: the company was granted an environmental impact assessment exemption in the first phase of the project, followed by a positive declaration.
In case of lithium exploration involving alleged favoritism towards the Lusorecursos company, suspicions about Galamba were revealed in 2019, in the RTP program “Friday at 9”.
Recall that in response the current Minister of Infrastructure classified the program coordinated by Sandra Felgueiras as ‘manure’. “I’m sorry, but this disgusting thing that wants to be considered an information program is just nonsense,” he said.
In this process a new character enters, who must be one of the defendants Jorge Costa e Oliveira, Secretary of State for Internationalization.
DCIAP discovered that he had been hired by “Lusorecursos Portugal Lithium” as a financial advisor. It should be noted that Costa e Oliveira was always considered very close to António Costa and was removed from the government after his involvement in the case of tickets for the European Football Championship offered by Galp, which also involved Vítor Escária.
20 million roads
The MP suspects that this former government official was informally hired by Luso Recursos before 2018 to lobby the government in favor of this company.
On March 28, 2019, a contract was signed for the exploration of a mine in Montalegre between Lusorecursos – established three days earlier – and the Directorate General of Energy, following the green light from the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Galamba, which DCIAP considers suspicious, as well as the environmental impact assessment process.
About Barroso mine, in Boticasthere are also suspicions of illegalities in the concession to the company “Savannah”, namely that the State may have exerted pressure on the oil company’s entry into the participation through Matos Fernandes and João Galamba, and Rui Oliveira Neves, then director of GALP from the company .
That is what the MP claims João Galamba will have interfered in decisions about environmental assessments. Despite negative technical opinions against the expansion of the Barroso mine, the APA issued a favorable opinion on May 30, 2023, subject to a series of changes.
The prosecutors will have verified that between June 2022 and May 2023 there were “negotiations” between Savannah, Câmara de Boticas and João Galambaaimed at the construction by the company of a 20 million euros gone that the House would not oppose the exploration of lithium – which did not succeed.
Responding to the APA’s advice, the mayor, Fernando Quiroga, expressed his “sorrow and concern”, reinforcing his position, according to which the mine “will question the investment that Boticas has made and which is based on agriculture, livestock farming and tourism”.
A total of 17 searches were carried out under the leadership of the DCIAP and with the support of the PSP and the Tax Authorities (AT), five searches in a law firm and home and 20 non-domestic searches, namely in rooms used by the head of the cabinet from the Prime Minister; at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action; at the Ministry of Infrastructure and the State Secretariat for Energy and Climate; at the Sines Municipal Council and at the head offices of other public entities and companies.
17 MP magistrates, three judicial magistrates, two representatives of the Bar Association, approximately 145 members of the PSP and nine of the AT participated.
Source: DN
