Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto, author of the revelations of ‘Football Leaks’, the information leak that showed the dark side of business in the world of football, was sentenced to four years in prison this Monday (11), in Lisbon, for eight computer crimes and attempted extortion against the Doyen Sports investment fund.
“In essence, the facts described [pela acusação] were considered as evidence”, declared judge Margarida Alves in a court in the Portuguese capital, which also sentenced Rui Pinto to pay 22 thousand euros (R$ 116 thousand at the current exchange rate) to compensate his victims.
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The hacker was accused of 89 computer crimes and was convicted of five of “illegitimate access” to systems and three of “aggravated violation of correspondence (e-mail), says the sentence.
“The freedom to inform does not allow justifying the violation of private life”, argued Alves.
Regarding the charge of attempted extortion, “the court has no doubt, it clearly established that he [Rui Pinto] I wanted to receive money”, added the judge.
“This decision recognizes that there was a public service” declared Rui Pinto’s lawyer, Francisco Teixeira da Mota, as he left the court.
According to the indictment, the hacker had tried to blackmail a boss at Doyen, also Portuguese Nelio Lucas, asking for 500,000 to 1 million euros (R$2.6 million to R$5.3 million) not to publish compromising documents.
After a complaint from the investment fund, which is based in Malta and controlled by Kazakh-Turkish brothers, the Portuguese police managed to find Rui Pinto, originally from the Porto region.
– Accused and protected witness –
At the same time accused and protected witness of the Portuguese justice system, the 34-year-old man claims the role of whistleblower, but acknowledged before the judges that he had 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 press outlets, this large amount of information highlighted questionable practices involving prominent players, clubs and agents, provoking tax and judicial investigations in several countries.
From the publication of Neymar and Lionel Messi’s salaries, to a rape accusation against Cristiano Ronaldo, which was rejected, and strategies to circumvent Manchester City’s financial ‘fair play’, the world of football was shaken by this gigantic leak. of information.
“I was outraged by what I discovered and decided to make it public”, declared Rui Pinto at the opening of the trial, in September 2020, adding that the ‘Football Leaks’ was “a reason to be proud and not ashamed”.
Among the 89 charges of computer piracy is the theft of data committed against Sporting Lisbon, Doyen Sports, the Portuguese Football Federation, an important law firm and even magistrates from the Portuguese Public Ministry.
The decision adopted this Monday does not settle Rui Punto’s accounts with Portuguese justice. The prosecutor’s office recently accused him of 377 new computer crimes that he allegedly committed between 2016 and 2019 against around 70 people, companies and institutions.
– ‘Great nonsense’ –
Arrested in January 2019 in Hungary, where he lived, and soon after extradited to Portugal, Rui Pinto spent more than a year in preventive detention before agreeing to cooperate with the authorities in other cases, allowing access to encrypted data that was in his possession.
The French authorities also requested the collaboration of the hacker, at the origin of ‘Luanda Leaks’, an investigation published in January 2020 in which Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos was accused of having accumulated a large fortune fraudulently.
At the end of his trial, Rui Pinto admitted to having obtained confidential information “illegitimately” from “a group of friends”, whom he refused to identify.
On the other hand, he did not regret his behavior with Doyen Sports and Nelio Lucas, describing the blackmail attempt as “total nonsense” and stating that he had no intention of going all the way.
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© Agence France-Presse
2023-09-11 17:26:39
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