The coincidence of EDP's decision to sponsor Columbia University and its hiring of Manuel Pinho generated much controversy in the Portuguese press (Jornal de Negócios) (13 August 2010) (TVI24) (13 August 2010) that reported Manuel Pinho had arranged for the gift from EDP in an amount of 3 million euros while he was minister in charge of energy issues and dealt extensively with EDP - Energias de Portugal. According to the press, this raised issues of a major conflict of interest and political graft for Pinho and Mexia and of academic integrity for Columbia University for seemingly granting faculty positions in exchange for cash gifts, [Diário de Notícias] (4 October 2010) as evidenced by an e-mail from the SIPA Dean at the time, John Coatsworth, asking EDP to make a first payment of 300 thousand dollars for a guest professor position, for which “Manuel Pinho was the best positioned candidate." [Visao] (10 December 2017) Manuel Pinho and EDP managers repeatedly denied that there had been an arrangement to hire Manuel Pinho, [Observador] (18 December 2018) but, in February 2019, more e-mails were revealed that confirmed that Pinho had personally asked Columbia University to hire him in exchange for 1.2 million euros from EDP and that he had pleaded that the arrangement not be revealed publicly.
