Rui Pinto assumes that the beginning of Football Leaks “passed through Sporting” and recognizes mistakes: «My life is upside down» – Football Leaks

Rui Pinto is being heard in court this Monday. “At the beginning of the Football Leaks project, the idea was to research some national and international identities in depth. My starting point was Sporting because we did an address analysis and realized that there could be a pattern of passwords used. The attack on Sporting was not decreed by me”, he declared. Even before this revelation, Rui Pinto described how it all started. “Football Leaks was my idea. This idea took place not in Budapest but in Prague with some friends. We were talking football about the FIFA corruption case that had been highly commented. We also talked about the report and accounts of the football clubs where money disappeared. My friends didn’t take the idea seriously but then the idea advanced. At that time, in 2015, we already had access to some information illegitimately and we noticed that there were dubious practices of some investment funds investment,” he said. “In this Football Leaks project, some mistakes were made. This process allowed me to realize that crime, even with good intentions, does not pay, knowing what I know today I would not do what I did again, my life is turned upside down, my family has suffered a lot and what hurts me is the fact that everyone involved in the complaints was not held in preventive detention, they resolved things by paying fines. I was the only person deprived of liberty, in complicated conditions in isolation, just with weekly contact (2 hours) with the family Luanda Leaks had an impact but Isabel dos Santos continues to live her normal life.
I have already said that confidentiality between client and lawyer should not be used to protect the commission of a crime. I realized that I cannot change the world, it has to be the authorities who do this work. I always tried to alert for transparency, for the search for the truth and I always collaborated with the PJ”, he assumed before the points of the accusation.

Rui Pinto also admitted that he is collaborating with international authorities, namely in the war in Ukraine. “This is my way of doing things legally,” said the hacker.

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 witness protection at an undisclosed location and under police protection.