Lisbon court has sentenced the founder of Football Leaks.
A Lisbon court has sentenced Rui Pinto, the founder of Football Leaks, a website famous for its revelations in the world of football. A 34-year-old Portuguese man received a four-year suspended sentence for attempted extortion, illegal access to data and violating the secrecy of correspondence.
Rui Pinto, a former history student and self-taught IT expert, founded the website Football Leaks in 2015. According to Pinto, he created Football Leaks in order to expose corruption in sports by publishing confidential documents, including " information about player and coach transfers, agreements between sports organizations, sports contracts and player agencies." According to Reuters, the site has published more than 70 million documents related to the football industry.
Rui Pinto claimed that he was an informant acting in the public interest. However, Judge Alves stressed that Pinto cannot claim to be an informant, as he committed crimes to obtain information without knowing its content.
The hacker's targets included the Sporting Football Club, the Portuguese Football Federation, the Doyen Sports investment fund, and the PLMJ law firm. In addition, the court found that Pinto and his lawyer tried to extort between 500,000 and 1 million euros from Doyen Sports in exchange for non-disclosure of incriminating information.
Initially, Pinto was charged with 90 charges, but 77 of them were dropped as part of an amnesty for young people announced in June.
Pinto's lawyer, Francisco Teixeira da Mota, said the defense was happy with the suspended sentence, as a full acquittal was impossible after a guilty plea. "Cooperation with the authorities was probably taken into account," he added.
Data from Football Leaks, seen by Reuters, showed how some high-ranking officials in football evaded taxes by transferring income to offshore companies.
A Lisbon court has sentenced Rui Pinto, the founder of Football Leaks, a website famous for its revelations in the world of football. A 34-year-old Portuguese man received a four-year suspended sentence for attempted extortion, illegal access to data and violating the secrecy of correspondence.
Rui Pinto, a former history student and self-taught IT expert, founded the website Football Leaks in 2015. According to Pinto, he created Football Leaks in order to expose corruption in sports by publishing confidential documents, including " information about player and coach transfers, agreements between sports organizations, sports contracts and player agencies." According to Reuters, the site has published more than 70 million documents related to the football industry.
Rui Pinto claimed that he was an informant acting in the public interest. However, Judge Alves stressed that Pinto cannot claim to be an informant, as he committed crimes to obtain information without knowing its content.
The hacker's targets included the Sporting Football Club, the Portuguese Football Federation, the Doyen Sports investment fund, and the PLMJ law firm. In addition, the court found that Pinto and his lawyer tried to extort between 500,000 and 1 million euros from Doyen Sports in exchange for non-disclosure of incriminating information.
Initially, Pinto was charged with 90 charges, but 77 of them were dropped as part of an amnesty for young people announced in June.
Pinto's lawyer, Francisco Teixeira da Mota, said the defense was happy with the suspended sentence, as a full acquittal was impossible after a guilty plea. "Cooperation with the authorities was probably taken into account," he added.
Data from Football Leaks, seen by Reuters, showed how some high-ranking officials in football evaded taxes by transferring income to offshore companies.
