He is at the origin of the “Football Leaks” revelations. The Portuguese Rui Pinto, who had made public a series of compromising documents on the underside of football business, was convicted on Monday by the courts of his country for eight computer crimes and attempted extortion against the Doyen Sports investment fund, receiving a four-year suspended prison sentence.
“Essentially, the facts described (in the indictment, editor’s note) were considered proven,” declared presiding judge Margarida Alves at the start of the summary of the judgment that she read to the Lisbon court. While he was responsible for a total of 89 computer crimes, Rui Pinto was convicted of five counts of “illegitimate access” to computer systems and three counts of “aggravated correspondence violation,” she said. “Freedom to inform does not justify the violation of private life,” asserted the presiding judge.
Illegal intrusions
Regarding the accusation of attempted extortion, “the court had no doubt. (…) It was clearly established that he (Rui Pinto, Editor’s note) wanted to receive money,” said judge Margarida Alves. According to the prosecution, he wanted to blackmail Doyen’s boss, the Portuguese Nélio Lucas, by demanding between 500,000 and one million euros to stop publishing compromising documents.
Both accused and protected witness of his country’s justice system, the 34-year-old young man claims the role of whistleblower, but admitted before his judges having committed illegal computer intrusions to obtain millions of documents that he began publishing directly on the Internet at the end of 2015. Transmitted to a consortium of European investigative media, this wealth of information highlighted questionable practices involving star players, clubs and agents, which were then subject to adjustments tax and legal investigations in several countries.
From the publication of the salaries of Lionel Messi or Neymar to an accusation of rape against Cristiano Ronaldo, which has since been dismissed, including strategies to circumvent financial fair play at Manchester City or ethnic profiling at Paris Saint-Germain, the football world was deeply shaken by this gigantic leak of information.
