the portuguese hacker Rui Pinto is collaborating with the French justice and will do the same with a Swiss prosecutor, in the process that was initiated by Football Leaks, and which will involve PSG, City and UEFA itself. The information is from his international lawyer, William Bourdon, French who is part of the organization for the protection of whistleblowers of corruption cases, The Signals Network.
The French justice has not given any information to the Portuguese police on this matter involving Rui Pinto. Contacted by DN, a PJ source linked to the investigation that began in 2015, she guaranteed that so far she has not received any indication from the French authorities, or from another country, about the possible collaboration of the hacker Rui Pinto. The same source reinforces that, if Rui Pinto wants to collaborate with the Portuguese authorities, he will find all the opening on the part of the PJ.
The French cases now under investigation were revealed by the French press last year, particularly the online investigative channel Mediapart. In this investigation, Gianni Infantino – the FIFA president who was the general secretary of UEFA – is said to have “negotiated directly with Manchester City” to circumvent UEFA’s Financial Control rules.
This case will even involve former French president Nicolas Sarkozy – who will be copying the emails sent by Infantino to City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak. Sarkozy is a PSG fan who has helped City’s Abu-Dhabi owners circumvent the rules of the French Football Federation. You leaks indicate that UEFA has helped clubs to “cover up irregularities for political reasons.”
According to Football Leaks, Qatar and Abu Dhabi have illegally injected US$4.5 billion into clubs to increase the budget and comply with UEFA rules. UEFA says clubs cannot spend more than they earn in a year and the deficit limits are 30 million in three seasons. Both clubs, PSG and City, were fined 60 million by UEFA in May 2014. But both were promised that they would be reimbursed 40 million if they complied with the deal.
This is why Rui Pinto is being defended by a star international lawyer, William Bourdon, French, specialist in “deep throat” cases or whistleblowers like Julien Assange, Edward Snowden, Hervé Facliani, one of the main whistleblowers of the SwissLeaks, and also those involved in the Lux Leaks case.
William Bourdon told DN that the process that led to Rui Pinto’s arrest it’s still not completely clear, and that it is not known whether the indictment refers only to the Doyen case, a Malta-based football investment fund that was targeted by Footbal Leaks. To Bourdon, “there is a strong lobby of Portuguese football agents committed to criminalizing our client.”
Bourdon was with Pinto in Hungary the day before his arrest – “and he didn’t even know he was being followed”. The protection of Pinto is justified, according to Bourdon, by the participation of the Portuguese hacker in the case of investigation of leaks of business information in the Football Leaks sport. The first case revealed by this website involved the international fund Doyen, which is now the main plaintiff in the process.
According to Bourdon, protecting Pinto is of crucial importance for the process taking place in France, where he is collaborating with the courts. “And it is also in contact with the Swiss prosecutor to initiate a cooperation process.” In this sense, the detention by the Hungarian authorities is a major setback in the process. “Mr. Pinto’s case can be compared to that of my client at Lux who was accused of breaking the law, and then acquitted.” The lawyer hopes that cooperation with international justice will help free Rui Pinto, who is already under house arrest.
Hacker arrest is not linked to Benfica
The 30-year-old Portuguese was arrested this Wednesday in a joint operation by the Portuguese Judiciary Police and its counterpart in Hungary and since this Friday morning he was ordered under house arrest, but the court has already received a request from the authorities to appeal this decision, probably at the request of the Portuguese police. “They really want me to go to prison,” said the Portuguese lawyer for Rui Pinto, Francisco Teixeira da Mota.
Teixeira da Mota confirmed that the foundations of the Portuguese’s arrest are only linked to the allegations of Doyen Sports, an investment fund that finances player passes and which was said to have been the first victim of the Portuguese hacker, in 2015 – date on which the Judiciary Police began to investigate him. Rui Pinto has accessed the company’s computer systems and asked for money (between 500,000 and one million euros) not to disclose them – which will configure the crime of extortion charged by the Public Ministry (MP) and which is also at the origin of his arrest in Budapest.
“Rui Pinto denies the extortion charges,” says the lawyer, who added that there is still a counter appeal for house arrest: Rui Pinto wants to be able to leave home, without leaving Budapest, where he lives. In opposition to the arrest of the hacker, there is also opposition to the extradition of the Portuguese, something that will be very difficult to avoid, in Teixeira da Mota’s opinion.
“The European agreements [de justiça] they exist exactly for that, to facilitate extradition requests, among others”, says the lawyer. Only in case there is no possibility of appealing the preventive measure or the existence of a life sentence, for example, in the country to which the extradition is requested , would be reasons to justify this refusal, which does not happen in the case of Portugal.
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