The official residence of the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, is one of the more than 40 places registered this Tuesday by the Police in an operation together with the Portuguese Prosecutor's Office that investigates fraudulent businesses in the hydrogen and lithium sector, according to local media.
The inspections have also been extended to the Ministries of Infrastructure and the Environment and have led to several arrests, including that of Costa's chief of staff, Vítor Escária, that of a Costa consultant, Lacerda Machado, and that of the mayor of Sines, the socialist Nuno Mascarenhas, according to the Portuguese media Público.
The same sources reported that the Minister of the Environment, Duarto Cordeiro, and the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, as well as the former Minister of the Environment João Pedro Matos Fernandes, are declared "arguidos" (formal suspects, a figure prior to the accusation).
The case would be investigating the lithium exploitation projects in Montalegre, in the north of Portugal, due to alleged favorable treatment by the Portuguese Government to different companies in the sector, according to the Portuguese press.
