“Luanda Leaks is me”, summed up this afternoon the creator of the electronic platform and the main defendant in the Football Leaks case, who explained that the interest in Angola already came from behind and materialized with access to the computer system of the PLMJ law firm. , namely, through the email box of the lawyer Inês Pinto da Costa, who was in charge of matters concerning the Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos.
According to Rui Pinto, the release of the Malta Files in May 2017 exposed a set of information about companies belonging to Isabel dos Santos and that they were associated with the PLMJ lawyer. “At that time, I already had a great interest in issues related to Angola. The complaints of Ana Gomes and the journalist Rafael Marques followed”, recalled the defendant in today’s session at the Central Criminal Court in Lisbon.
“[Esse material] was taken to journalists right at that stage, when I obtained the first documents related to Isabel dos Santos in 2017. João Medeiros.
The fact that João Medeiros is one of Benfica’s three lawyers and the exposure of his email in the ‘Mercado de Benfica’ blog generated several questions from the collective of judges to the creator of Football Leaks, but it was then that Rui Pinto insisted on distance themselves from this blog and defend that the disclosure of the lawyer’s emails “was a scoundrel”, pointing the responsibility of this situation to another element.
“I am not the creator of the ‘Benfica Market’. It was someone I knew and connected with Football Leaks. The interest in João Medeiros’ mailbox was not mine”, he said, adding: “I am not the author of ‘Mercado de Benfica’ and I had several discussions with the author. From the moment he got this information, I wanted it to go to Football Leaks or the consortium of journalists and he, out of stupidity or stubbornness, created the ‘Mercado de Benfica’”.
Rui Pinto clarified that the author of that blog – where many documents related to Benfica were exposed – obtained “a treasure map” at the end of 2016 from an external collaborator of the Luz club and that this worked as a “guide on how to access and what to specifically access” at Benfica.
“The ‘Benfica Market’ was not a joint project. I always said there was no way around it, because Football Leaks wasn’t that. I tried to convince him, but he wouldn’t. We had many discussions. Looking at the disclosure of João Medeiros’ mailbox, this was a scoundrel. I’m deeply sorry that happened, but I’m not going to apologize for something I didn’t do,” he pointed out.
Still on the subject of the author of ‘Mercado de Benfica’, whom he never named in the courtroom, Rui Pinto revealed that this individual was the first person to also access PLMJ, as he was in Prague at the time for an electronic music festival. .
“The idea [para aceder à PLMJ] through a download platform was mine and it turned out to be the result. We had a meeting where I talked about my idea, but I didn’t handle the submission. […] I told them ‘I’m going to Prague, do you deal with it or do you expect me to come back?’ They dealt with it and the author of ‘Mercado de Benfica’ took the reins of this situation”, he noted, in addition to describing the online dissemination of electronic mailboxes in full as something “regrettable”.
Rui Pinto, 34 years old, is responsible for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of improper access, 14 of violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the law firm PLMJ, the Portuguese Federation of Football (FPF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and also for computer sabotage of Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in the attempted form. This last crime concerns Doyen and was what also led to the indictment of lawyer Aníbal Pinto.
The creator of Football Leaks has been free since August 7, 2020, “due to his collaboration” with the Judiciary Police (PJ) and his “critical sense”, but is, for security reasons, included in the program of witness protection in an undisclosed location and under police protection.
JGO // AMG
