Manuel António Gomes de Almeida de Pinho (born 28 October 1954) is a former Portuguese Minister of Economy and Innovation (2005–09) in the José Sócrates cabinet, who subsequently became an energy policy academic (2010–17) under circumstances that led to indictments in Portugal in 2017[1] and 2019,[2] to house arrest since 2021,[3] and to multiple charges of passive corruption, tax fraud, and money laundering in 2022[4] for which he was convicted in 2024 and sentenced to 10-years in prison and a fine in the amount of 4.9 millions euros[5] that the prosecution documented Pinho had received while in office[6] in secret monthly offshore payments from his prior and subsequent boss Ricardo Espírito Santo Salgado whose Espírito Santo Financial Group benefited[2] from several of Pinho's decisions as minister.

[20] He was initially hired as the group's head of research and capital markets and quickly rose to become a full member of the executive board of Banco Espírito Santo in charge of key financial operations areas.

[39] In 2018 it was revealed that Pinho had held at least four offshore secret bank accounts in his name,[40] including one in Panama (named “Tartaruga Foundation”) into which he had received 3.5 million euros in under-the-table payments from his former boss Ricardo Salgado between 2006 and 2014, including at least 778,000 euros while Pinho was government minister and bound by office not to receive income from other sources, which led to indictments in Portugal on passive corruption and influence peddling charges.

Pinho entered government politics in the early 2000s when he started contributing to Portugal's opposition Socialist Party economic agenda for the 2005 legislative elections.

Pinho's decisions to grant high price guarantees to renewable energy generation and a 26-year hydropower buying monopoly to EDP-Energias de Portugal were deemed "excessive" by the subsequent government,[51] "non-competitive and undervalued" by the European Commission that opened an official inquiry in 2013,[30] and "contrary to the public interest" by the Portuguese Court of Audits in 2016.

On 2 July 2009, Pinho resigned as minister following an outburst in the Portuguese Parliament during the State of the Nation debate when he held his index fingers to his temples and mimicked a bull's horns in a cuckolding gesture directed at a communist parliamentarian who heckled him.

[55] Facing outcries of disrespectful conduct, at first Pinho tried to keep his job and apologized indirectly, but he was forced to resign two hours later after meeting behind closed doors with his Cabinet colleague, the minister of Parliamentary Affairs.

"[59] The TV footage of the cuckolding gesture[60] immediately went viral making Pinho the subject of worldwide press coverage[61] and countless Internet memes[62] showing him self-applying horns to his own head.

During 2014-16 the combination of the Panama Papers leaks and of the criminal indictments of Manuel Pinho's two government mentors, Ricardo Salgado and Jose Socrates, revealed collateral evidence of legal infractions by Pinho during the time he was minister, which warranted his indictment in 2017 by the Portugal's Public Prosecutor Office on multiple charges of passive corruption, tax fraud, and money laundering.

All three were found gulity by the Court with Manuel Pinho being sentenced to 10-years in jail, which extended his permanence under house arrest pending an appeal he filed in October 2024.

[65] In 2017, Pinho's record as a minister was shaken by the revelation that the whole time he was in office he had been receiving through a secret offshore account a monthly allowance of close to 15,000 euros from his Espirito Santo Financial Group mentor Ricardo Salgado totaling over a million euros over his mandate[41] that he did not disclose in the annual income and assets declarations required of all Portuguese government officials.

Pinho was originally indicted in 2017 for favoring EDP in exchange for the Columbia University position but the indictment was voided by the presiding judge's decision, which was overturned on appeal and Pinho was subsequently re-indicted in 2019 on more extensive corruption, tax fraud, and money laundering charges for having received a total of 4.5 million euros in illegal payments.

[69] After his indictment in 2017, Pinho divested bank accounts and real estate assets in his name in Portugal.,[70] including his luxury Lisbon home that he sold in 2018 for 2.8 million euros.

[75] and on 18 January 2021, a Portuguese Court issued a statement naming Manuel Pinho, António Mexia e João Manso Neto as suspects of having been corrupted by Odebrecht in the awarding of the construction works for the Sabor dam.

He returned to academia in 2010 when the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University hired him as an Energy Policy Visiting Professor [76] following a "multi-year gift" from EDP - Energias de Portugal as disclosed by SIPA in its 2010,[77] 2011,[78] and 2012[79] Annual Reports.

In a 2006 interview about his personal life,[88] Pinho publicly acknowledged that he was an avid collector of photography and revealed that "after he returned from America" in 1988 he had a near death auto accident that has since limited his mobility.