John's summary:
Jan 2008 - Says that he paid British divers from Dive Time, Lagos, Algarve to search one part of the Arade Dam at a cost of at least £1,200 a day. He says he did this out of the goodness of his own heart, but he later conceded that Método 3 paid him ‘expenses’ [denied by Método 3].
John seems to have found something to indicate that M3 denied funding Marcos, but he hasn't posted the sources.
Could you provide some kind of reliable source about this, John? What, if any, these expenses actually concerned? He might well have been paid expenses to be interviewed by the PIs to check if he had any knowledge of what may have happened to her. I don't see a problem with that. Is there anything verifiable beyond that? It may even be possible that costs were paid to check the lake. I wouldn't have a problem with that either (if ever that was the case). The hunt for little April was massive and if the police hadn't explored that possibility, there may have been a missed lead.
Marcos Correia had initially claimed that he was a ‘Good Samaritan’, funding searches of the dam, costing £1,200 a day, out of his pocket. Under questioning, he later admitted that Metodo 3 had paid him ‘expenses’ for the searches. It thus appeared that the divers were funded not by Mr Correia, but by Metodo 3, who were in turn funded by the McCanns. His claim to be a Good Samaritan was exposed as yet another of Mr Correia’s lies, but, just as important, it raised these questions:
Was Marcos Correia paid more than just ‘expenses’ for his Arade Dam searches? – and
Did the McCann Team authorise payment to be made to Mr Correia to carry out those searches?
At the time of the second search of the Arade Dam, one newspaper reported the McCanns as being ‘furious’. It claimed: “Kate and Gerry McCann reacted with fury yesterday after divers began a second search of a reservoir for Madeleine's body. The couple told friends that the search - funded by a Portuguese lawyer who they claim is a ‘fantasist’ seeking publicity - is a distraction from the hunt”.
The report continued: “Marcos Aragão Correia claims crime contacts told him she was killed and left in the lake two days after going missing. Correia spent thousands of pounds on a previous search but found nothing. But a McCann source said: ‘There's no evidence Madeleine is in that reservoir. They believe she is alive and are concentrating on finding her’.”
It is conceded by the McCanns that Método 3 were acting for them from September 2007.
We have also established that Método 3 was in contact with Marcos Correia by 10 December 2007, when their detectives met him at the Arade Dam.
We know that Método 3 paid at least expenses to Marcos Correia for the Arade dam searches.