Rui Pinto was convicted in the Football Leaks case, on Monday, to a four-year suspended sentence. Two years for the crime of extortion, from one year and three months to one year and six months for illegitimate access and from six to nine months for mail violation. The panel of judges highlighted that the defendant actually intended to extort Doyen and proved the violation of correspondence with PLMJ, PGR and the Portuguese Football Federation but the violation of correspondence with Sporting, Bruno de Carvalho and Jorge Jesus was not proven.
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Thus, the hacker foi convicted of one crime of extortion, five of illegitimate access, amnestied for 68 crimes of improper access (for disregarding the aggravation), amnestied for 11 crimes of simple mail violation and convicted of three crimes of aggravated mail violation. He was also acquitted of computer sabotage.
In addition to the suspended prison sentence that he will have to serve, the hacker was also obliged to pay four compensations to four of the process’s assistants: to Doyen, to João Medeiros, lawyer, and to his teammates, at the time, from PLMJ, Rui da Costa Pereira and Inês Almeida Costa. Benfica’s lawyer was the one who had asked for the highest amount of compensation and the judge ended up deciding 15 thousand euros. This amount will be donated to the pediatric wing of the IPO in Lisbon, as João Medeiros said after reading the ruling. See the reasons given by the assistants, Judge Margarida Alves’ decision and the total amounts that Rui Pinto will have to pay (around 22 thousand euros).
Supporters of Rui Pinto, outside the courthouse on the Justice Campus, in Lisbon.MARIO CRUZ/LUSA
Doyen will receive 5.5 thousand euros from Rui Pinto and Aníbal Pinto
In the arguments given by Doyen for the civil compensation claim, it was alleged that “unrest and uneasiness in the daily routine of the General Director, Nélio Lucas – “embarrassed and insecure regarding the future of his activity and the consequences that the implementation of the threats made could have for his business”. This time, requests were made
7.5 thousand euros to Rui Pinto and 2.5 thousand euros to Aníbal Pinto. The judge explained that it was taken for granted that the defendant Rui Pinto’s conduct caused a feeling of impotence in the face of unauthorized intrusion into his systems, given the possibility of confidential documents subject to commercial secrets that contained personal data of several people and entities, many
which belong to business partners, be easily viewed, searched, removed and made public”, according to the ruling. And he adds that “the action of that defendant caused the plaintiff a feeling of
impotence in the face of the possibility that he demonstrated to have of accessing, removing and publishing documents containing identifiable data of third parties and collaborators, such as name, address and telephone contacts”. However, the value decided by the judge ended up being practically half of the request: 3 thousand euros to be paid for Rui Pinto and 2.5 thousand euros for Aníbal Pinto.
João Medeiros, former partner at PLMJ and lawyer for Sport Lisboa e Benfica
The lawyer, who was a partner at PLMJ during the period in question, alleges that Rui Pinto decided to access the company’s computer system without authorization and managed to obtain the contents of 25 email boxes. Rui Pinto published and made available, on more than one blog, in addition to professional information, information of a personal nature, namely documents and files of a personal nature, identification data of himself, his family and friends; on the plaintiff’s computer and email box were archived personal photographs of the lawyer, his friends and family, including his five children. And that’s why he asked for the amount of 20 thousand euros.
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In the ruling, it is recalled that from the beginning of the publications until January 12, 2019, the plaintiff lived in “shock either because he saw content published that he knew could not be disclosed regarding clients, or because he was unaware of the true dimension of the attack and the information that could be disclosed.” The judge admits that she was “it has been clearly demonstrated that for more than two months the plaintiff had to be accountable to his clients, try to maintain their trust and deal with everything that was published and disseminated by the media at every moment; He saw his dignity and reputation as a lawyer being called into question, feeling anguish, anger, tension and pressure that had repercussions on his health, well-being and family life.”
This caused the lawyer to “sleep poorly, he was sad, alternating between explosive behavior and moments of apathy, as he felt gutted, violated and powerless in the face of the behavior”. Therefore, it ended up deciding that Rui Pinto will have to pay 15 thousand euros to João Medeiros, who has already made it known that, if he receives the amount, it will be donated to the pediatric wing of the IPO in Lisbon.
João Medeiros, current partner at VdAHugo Amaral/ECO
Rui Costa Pereira, Medeiros’ right-hand man and lawyer
Also assistant Rui da Costa Pereira, a former lawyer at PLMJ, filed a civil compensation claim of two thousand and 39 euros. Which was accepted by magistrate Margarida Alves. The lawyer alleged, in summary, that despite knowing that he was prohibited from doing so, the defendant accessed PLMJ’s computer system, as well as the plaintiff’s work computer and email box.
The group of judges says that Rui Pinto knew that by disclosing the computer data he exfiltrated he was putting into question “his ability to keep secret the matters entrusted to him as a lawyer; He questioned, in the eyes of his other professional colleagues, his ability to keep secrets about the matters that he had to discuss and work on with him”. It was also demonstrated that in the weeks following the release of the elements stored on his computer, Rui da Costa Pereira went through “moments of great stress, nervousness and irritation, he saw his sleep, normal rest time and emotional balance disturbed and compromised, given the permanent uncertainty about what else could be released.” In short, he saw his “work capacity affected over several weeks, as well as his professional prestige affected”.
Inês Almeida Costa: asked for just over two thousand euros and the judge accepted
The assistant – who was part of João Medeiros’ team at PLMJ, at the time, requested the sum of two thousand and thirty-nine euros, which the judge validated. The lawyer said that, during the period in which the facts occurred, Rui Pinto “accessed PLMJ’s computer network and, as well, the electronic mailboxes and computer equipment used by the plaintiff, obtained and disclosed elements subject to professional lawyer secrecy ”. The ruling states that the lawyer experienced moments of “anguish, insecurity and revolt either because she saw content disclosed that she knew could not be disclosed, or because she was unaware of the true dimension of what could still be disclosed”. The plaintiff was “alarmed and concerned because such equipment contained, to
Furthermore, strictly personal information, such as the exchange of communications, files, personal data and photographs of you, your family, your friends, from various years, such as holidays, Christmas and trips.
The lack of knowledge of what had been extracted and could be published caused and continues to prove revolt and uneasiness; she was overcome with sadness, anxiety and irritation, having felt that her life had been devastated”. The state of “anxiety and irritation plus the fact of having to explain what had happened to known customers affected his ability to work”.
Reasons given by the judge to award compensation
The judge who presided over the panel of judges in this case wrote thatand “there is no doubt that the defendants Rui Pinto and Aníbal Pinto acted with the aim of making their own a monetary amount between 500 thousand and 1 million euros through blackmail/embarrassment that they caused to Doyen, through Nélio Lucas; amount to which they knew they were not entitled and which they simply did not obtain due to factors beyond their control”.
As with the other assistants, it was also proven that “the defendant Rui Pinto published and made available on the internet, more specifically on a blog he created, confidential information exfiltrated from the email boxes of each of them”. As for guilt, “and having found out that the conduct of the defendants were objectively harmful to the rights of the injured parties, since, as was proven, they were affected by feelings of insecurity, uncertainty and anguish demonstrated by the existence of damage and the causal link between the fact and the damage ”.
2023-09-14 06:02:50
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