Former Doyen Sports administrator, Nélio Lucas, said on Wednesday that the investment fund “never” was available to pay for the extortion attempt attributed to Rui Pinto to halt the publication of documents in the Football Leaks.
In the testimony that still takes place in the 21st session of the trial, Nélio Lucas discussed the contours of his contacts with Artem Lobuzov, the name allegedly used by Rui Pinto in the exchange of messages with the businessman and who would have established a budget “between 500 thousand and million euros ”to put an end to the disclosure of confidential investment fund information on the Internet.
We never intended to pay, as it turned out. I had to keep answering to buy time, because there was a stop for publications, and then to try to find out who it was ”, noted Nélio Lucas, noting that, despite the apparently Russian name, the email was in Portuguese and “well written”.
It was following these messages that the meeting took place at the service station on the A5 motorway, in Oeiras, on October 22, 2015, between Doyen’s administrator, lawyer Pedro Henriques – who operated as a ‘right-hand man’ – and the lawyer Aníbal Pinto, representing Artem Lobuzov. In this regard, Nélio Lucas also confirmed that he himself chose the place for the meeting and not the Judiciary Police (PJ), who meanwhile was already aware of the contacts and who had already received complaints from Doyen and the businessman himself.
It is Mr. Artem who suggests that extortion should be mediated by lawyers, which must be unprecedented. It was such an atypical situation that I used Pedro Henriques to understand who this gang was and what they wanted ”, mentioned, while mentioning that the face-to-face meeting “Comes at the insistence of the other party”, which had shown “urgency”.
Without hiding that he had “any hope” in meeting Rui Pinto, Nélio Lucas even revealed that during the conversation with Aníbal Pinto he even suspected that it was the lawyer who was in possession of Doyen’s documentation. According to the witness, “Aníbal Pinto knew everything that was going on” it’s that he “It even suggested paying half the lowest amount”, that is, 250 thousand euros instead of between 500 thousand and one million.
The former Doyen administrator said that Artem Lobuzov’s representative at the meeting – and also a defendant in this process – wanted him to pay him 300,000 euros in fees and that it was his idea to turn the situation into a supposed service contract. to Rui Pinto (whose identity as the creator of the ‘Football Leaks’ platform was then unknown).
Nélio Lucas also confirmed that Doyen took steps to discover the source of the attack on the computer system, by hiring a British investigation company. The operation did not reach conclusions, but the businessman argued that it was the information provided at the meeting on the A5 motorway by Aníbal Pinto about his client – “a young man between 20 and 30 years old, living abroad and who had already accessed a bank of the Cayman Islands ”- which helped the PJ to arrive at the later identification of Rui Pinto.
When I left to speak, it was the best thing I did, because we are here today ”, asserted, conveying the conviction that there was intention, “No doubt”, by Artem Lobuzov on receiving the money: “My perception is that I wanted to receive the money.”
Rui Pinto, 31, is responsible for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of undue access, 14 of violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the PLMJ law firm, the Portuguese Federation of Football (FPF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and also for computer sabotage to Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in the attempted form. This last crime concerns Doyen and was also what led to the pronunciation of the lawyer Aníbal Pinto.
The creator of Football Leaks has been free since August 7, “due to his collaboration” with the Judiciary Police (PJ) and his “critical sense”, but for security reasons, he is part of the protection program for witnesses in an undisclosed location and under police protection.
Nélio Lucas says he is a victim of “public lynching”
The media impact caused by Football Leaks’ revelations about Doyen Sports Investments was today compared by Nélio Lucas to an “authentic public lynching”.
“It was an authentic public lynching and it continues to happen. This was the complete destruction of my good reputation and that of investors. Patience has limits ”, said the 41-year-old businessman, who attacked Rui Pinto for what happened, extending criticism to the media.
Stressing that he had been “taking a beating non-stop from the press for five years”, based on what he considered “analogies of a person who made his own comments”, Nélio Lucas also defended that the main defendant in the process “did what he wanted, tried extorting money and seizing people’s bank details ”and claimed that the impact“ is impossible to quantify ”on a personal and professional level.
It had nothing to do with the concern to clean up football. I was talking about ‘offshores’ and then I was trying to create an ‘offshore’ society to receive the money ”, reiterated, adding: “There are limits to everything and this cannot go unpunished. I can only reply that it was worth it when this is over and this individual is convicted. ”
The final stretch of the hearing was marked by a new moment of tension between the former Doyen administrator and the panel of judges, after Nélio Lucas was irritated by the story of the purchase of a yacht, exposed in a statement from Football Leaks, which he read in a loud voice that gave him an unusual comparison: “I’m like that lady who was raped and then she has to explain why she was raped.”
Assistant judge Ana Paula Conceição asked the witness to be calm, but Nélio Lucas did not back down and insisted: “Because I am a victim of a crime, do I have to explain who I am?”, To which the collective’s president, Margarida Alves, ended up intervene in a more assertive way, stressing that she was the one commanding the audience. Then there was a short break and the last minutes of the hearing took place in a less crowded environment.
The trial continues on Thursday from 9:30 am with the continuation of the hearing of Nélio Lucas, now at the stage of inquiries by the process assistants and the representatives of the defendants.
.
