Football whistle-blower accused of 147 crimes in Porto

The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) has confirmed that Rui Pinto, a Porto-based hacker, has been charged with attempted extortion crime, 75 counts of illegitimate information pirating, computer sabotage, and 70 counts of correspondence violation, seven of which are deemed to be aggravated. The same entity states that a single charge of extortion has been given to the second defendant, Aníbal Pinto, who is the lawyer of the Vila Nova de Gaia hacker.

In a statement, the Attorney General’s Office explained that “from the beginning of 2015 until the 16^th of January 2019″, Rui Pinto “provided himself with the appropriate technical knowledge and equipment to allow himself unauthorized access to computer systems and third-party mailboxes “.

To this end, they allege that “he installed various computer programs and digital tools on his equipment that allowed him, in a disguised and anonymous way, to enter the said computer systems and third-party mailboxes and then steal content”.

In the prosecution which has now been brought forward, Rui Pinto has been described as the man behind a “Football Leaks” website, “whose content was being fed using documents” taken from pirated email boxes.

It is worth pointing out that “Football Leaks” has disclosed confidential information, including transfer values ??of players and coaches, agreements between sports entities, clauses of sports contracts and the actions of players. “

Furthermore, according to Office, the Sporting Club, the Portuguese Football Federation, the law firm PLMJ and the Attorney General’s Office were all targeted by the man arrested in Hungary in January this year.

Rui Pinto accessed “documents of these entities subject to the secrecy of justice, professional attorney secrecy, and trade secrets”, as well as “the computers of officials working for Doyen”, a hedge fund that provides funding to football clubs.

The prosecution claim that Rui Pinto “assumed a fictitious identity, then blackmailed the lawyer representative of the investment fund by saying that he wanted an amount of between 500,000 and 1 million euros so that all the information in his possession would be eliminated.”

It is in this context that lawyer Aníbal Pinto is also involved in the plot since in the eyes of the prosecutors, Rui Pinto contacted the lawyer asking him to collaborate with him to blackmail the Doyen legal representative. Aníbal Pinto is accused of “supporting the plan and taking steps to reach an illegal agreement”.