The author of the “Football Leaks” revelations is sentenced to prison

The author of the “Football Leaks” revelations is sentenced to prison

The Portuguese Rui Pintoauthor of the revelations of ‘Football Leaks’the leak that uncovered the dark side of the football business, was sentenced to four years in suspended prison, this Monday in Lisbonfor eight computer crimes and attempted extortion against the investment fund Doyen Sports.

“In essence, the facts described (in the indictment) were considered evidence”declared the presiding judge Margarida Alves in a court of Lisbonwho also condemned Rui Pinto to turn off 22,000 euros (about 24,000 dollars) to compensate his victims.

The hacker He faced 89 computer crimes and was convicted of five of them. “illegitimate access” to computer systems and three of “aggravated violation of correspondence – email -“accurate.

“Freedom of information does not justify the violation of privacy”argument Alves.

Rui Pinto He was in the room where the hearing was held: surgical mask on his face, dark blue shirt, jeans and sneakers.

Regarding the accusation of attempted extortion, “the court has no doubt, it clearly established that he (Rui Pinto) wanted to receive money”added the judge.

“This decision recognizes that there was a public service”declared however the lawyer of Rui Pinto, Francisco Teixeira da Motaat the exit of the court.

According to the accusation, the Portuguese had tried to blackmail a head of they givehis compatriot Nelio Lucasasking him between 500,000 and one million euros (536,620 and 1.07 million dollars) to stop publishing compromising documents.

It was a complaint from this investment fund based in malt and controlled by some Kazakh-Turkish brothers, which put the Portuguese police on the trail of the self-taught ‘hacker’, originally from the region of Port (north of Portugal).

At the same time accused and protected witness of the justice of his country, the 34-year-old claims a role as a whistleblower, but admitted before the judges that he had committed illegal computer intrusions to obtain millions of documents that he began to publish directly on the Internet through end of 2015.

Transmitted to a consortium of European investigative media, this large amount of information put the spotlight on questionable practices involving prominent players, clubs and agents, triggering tax and judicial investigations in several countries.

From the publication of the salaries of Lionel Messi either Neymarto an accusation of rape against Cristiano Ronaldowhich was rejected, going through the strategies to avoid the financial ‘fair-play’ of the Manchester Citythe football planet 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 ‘Football Leaks’ was “a reason for pride and not shame”.

Among the 89 computer hacking charges he faced, data theft committed against the Sporting of Portugal, Doyen Sportsthe Portuguese Football Federationan important law firm and even magistrates of the Portuguese prosecutor’s office.

The decision made this Monday in Lisbon does not settle its accounts with the Portuguese justice system. The prosecution recently charged him with 377 new computer charges that he could have committed between 2016 and 2019 against nearly 70 people, companies or institutions.

Arrested in January 2019 in Hungarywhere he lived, and then extradited to his country, Rui Pinto He spent more than a year in provisional detention before agreeing to cooperate with authorities in other cases, allowing him to access encrypted data in his possession.

The French authorities also requested collaboration from the Portuguese, in the origin of the ‘Luanda Leaks‘, an investigation published in January 2020 in which the Angolan businesswoman was accused Isabel dos Santos of having accumulated an immense fortune fraudulently.

At the end of his trial, Pinto admitted having obtained confidential information “illegitimate” with “a group of friends” which he refused to identify.

But he did not regret his behavior with Doyen Sports and Nelio Lucasdescribing the blackmail attempt as “a great nonsense” and ensuring that he had no intention of going to the end.

Source: Ambito

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