The creator of the Football Leaks platform, Rui Pinto, admitted on Monday that he wouldn’t do what he did, given the personal costs incurred by the entire process, assuming his life was “upside down”.
“The truth is that crime, even with good intentions, doesn’t pay. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t get involved in something like that again. My life is turned upside down, my family has suffered a lot and what it costs me fact that all those involved in the complaints…none of them were in protective custody,” the defendant said in the trial that took place at the Central Criminal Court in Lisbon about two years ago.
To testify before the jury for the first time since the start of the trial, Rui Pinto acknowledged that “mistakes were made” in the Football Leaks project, although he emphasized the “great benefits” for society with the disclosure of “information that would otherwise not have been known”.
“Money solved things and I was the only person to be deprived of liberty. I was deprived of my liberty for a year and a half. It was several months in isolation, with only a weekly contact with the family,” he also told Leaks: “It had a major national and international impact, but Isabel dos Santos still lives peacefully in Dubai and has no warrant hanging over her.
The creator of the platform that disclosed many documents related to Portuguese and international football clubs also recalled his collaboration with the authorities, namely the French authorities, while criticizing the main law firms, which he called “architects of the largest money laundering and tax fraud”. and criticized the use of client-lawyer secrecy to protect the commission of crimes.
“I understand that I cannot change things, I cannot change the world. It must be the authorities. Despite this, I have not stopped trying to fight for transparency, not even cooperation with the authorities. The most decisive cooperation took place with the French authorities, who have consistently shown a strong desire to count on my help,” he emphasized.
At the same time, Rui Pinto also took on his technological contribution to the Ukrainian side in the war with Russia.
“We have provided information to the Ukrainian intelligence services. We have analyzed surveillance images in strategic locations and also intercepted radio communications used by the Russian military. All this is ‘open source intelligence’. As one Ukrainian soldier said: ‘Our lucky they are very stupid,” he noted.
Rui Pinto, 33 years old, is responsible for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of improper access, 14 of breach of correspondence, six of illegal access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the law firm PLMJ, the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and also for computer sabotage of Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in attempted form. This latest crime concerns Doyen and also led to the indictment of lawyer Aníbal Pinto.
The creator of Football Leaks has been at large since August 7, 2020, “for his collaboration” with the Judicial Police (PJ) and his “critical sense”, but has been placed under witness protection at an undisclosed location and under police protection for security reasons. .
Source: DN
