“The truth is that crime, even with good intentions, does not pay. Knowing what I know today, I wouldn’t get involved in something like this again. My life is upside down, my family has suffered a lot and what costs me is the fact that everyone involved in the allegations… years in the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon.
Giving a statement to the panel of judges for the first time since the start of the trial, Rui Pinto acknowledged that “errors were made” in the Football Leaks project, although he emphasized the “great benefits” for society with the disclosure of “information that otherwise way would not have been known”.
“Money was solving things and I was the only person who was deprived of liberty, I was deprived of liberty for a year and a half. There were several months in isolation, with only weekly contact with the family”, he said, also mentioning the Luanda Leaks case: “It had a great national and international impact, but Isabel dos Santos continues to live her life in Dubai quietly and does not hang on she no warrant. Things are running perhaps until the prescription”.
The creator of the platform that exposed many documents linked to Portuguese and international football clubs also recalled his collaboration with the authorities, namely the French authorities, without ceasing to criticize the main law firms, which he called “architects of the biggest schemes of money laundering and tax fraud” and criticized the use of secrecy between client and lawyer to protect against the commission of crimes.
“I understand that I can’t be the one to change things, I can’t change the world. It has to be the authorities. Despite this, I did not stop trying to fight for transparency, even for collaboration with the authorities. The most decisive collaboration took place with the French authorities, who have systematically shown a great desire to count on my help”, he stressed.
At the same time, Rui Pinto also assumed his contribution to the Ukrainian side in the war with Russia in a technological aspect.
“We have been handing over information to Ukrainian intelligence services. We have been analyzing surveillance footage at strategic sites and also intercepting radio communications used by the Russian army. This is all ‘open source intelligence’. As one Ukrainian soldier said, ‘Our luck is that they are very stupid,’” he observed.
Rui Pinto, 33 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 to Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in the attempted form. This last crime concerns Doyen and was what also led to the pronunciation 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 at an undisclosed location and under police protection.
JGO // NFO
