A former Italian environment minister is under investigation over whether any illegality was involved in his handling of up to €200m of public funds earmarked for green energy projects in China in the years leading up to the financial crisis.

Corrado Clini, who served as director-general of Italy’s environment ministry for two decades before becoming environment minister in the government led by Mario Monti between 2011 and 2013, is being investigated over whether he awarded the work on these projects to a small group of contractors in exchange for money or other favours, an Italian prosecutor and police report say.

Mr Clini has strongly denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations “false” and “ridiculous”. Although the investigation has been running for more than a year, Italian prosecutors have not filed any charges against Mr Clini as they scrutinise the Chinese projects.