Miguel Barreto, the former Director General of Energy - and a suspect in the current EDP price fixing and bungs inquiry - has been under investigation in Switzerland for almost a year, suspected of money laundering.
The Swiss authorities are convinced that money transferred to Barreto’s bank account in Geneva was a financial reward for corrupt activities in Portugal.
Miguel Barreto transferred his part of the proceeds of the 2010 sale to EDP of Home Energy, an energy efficiency company that he owned jointly with Martifer.
Barreto was Director General of Energy and Geology between 2004 and 2008. Two years later he sold his fledgling company to EDP and banked €1.4 million.
It is suspected that the company was worth nowhere near the sum paid and that Barreto in fact was being rewarded for extending the operating license of the Sines power plant, one of the units covered by the deliberately complex Contractual Equilibrium Maintenance Cost (CMEC) regime.
The Swiss Public Prosecution Office is suspicion that the sale was, in effect, money laundering and payment for making the 'right' decision.
A letter rogatory from the Swiss authorities was sent to Portugal to be included a case where the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action suspected corrupt links between the former Energy Minister, Manuel Pinho and EDP. This case was dropped but Miguel Barreto was named as a defendant and now is under investigation again.
After selling his stake in Home Energy to EDP, Miguel Barreto created Gesto Energia to develop energy projects in and outside of Portugal.
Several photovoltaic projects in Portugal already have been sold - to Galp Energia.
