Rui Pinto

Pinto was born on 20 October 1988 in Vila Nova de Gaia. A keen football fan, he grew up supporting FC Porto. and enrolled in a study-abroad program in Budapest in 2013. He was alleged to have stolen €300,000 from Cayman Islands-based Caledonian Bank, though he denied any wrongdoing and stated that he challenged the bank in order to show "how the Cayman Islands are largely used for tax evasion and to launder money". He reached an out-of-court settlement with the Caledonian Bank in 2014 and has since refused to comment further on the incident, citing a non-disclosure agreement. ==Football Leaks==

Pinto returned to Hungary permanently in February 2015 and made money by helping his father's antique business. While Nélio Lucas claimed that Pinto had actually been scared off after reading correspondence exchanged with the Portuguese police. Pinto provided Der Spiegel with four terabytes of confidential information over the next three years. In December 2016, Der Spiegel and other partners at the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network (including ''L'Espresso, Le Soir, NRC Handelsblad, The Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism / The Black Sea, Mediapart, Politiken, Falter, NewsWeek, El Mundo, The Sunday Times, and Expresso'') began working together to investigate documents provided by Pinto in order to publish information about tax avoidance by several football stars. The leaks resulted in multiple footballers being convicted of tax evasion, the Las Vegas police department to investigate an allegation of rape by Cristiano Ronaldo, for Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain to be investigated for breaking UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFP) regulations, and also revealed plans from big clubs for the formation of a 'European Super League'. In 2018, Rafael Buschmann released a book, entitled Football Leaks, detailing his role in establishing a working relationship with Pinto. ==Luanda Leaks==

On 19 January 2020, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published a detailed report on how Isabel dos Santos amassed her wealth to become Africa's richest woman. The report – which it called Luanda Leaks – provides evidence of how she "made a fortune at the expense of the Angolan people". Pinto's lawyers claim that he provided the source material for this report. ==Arrest==

Pinto was identified as the source of Football Leaks by Portuguese magazine Sábado in September 2018. He was arrested in Budapest on 16 January 2019 at the request of the Portuguese authorities for suspicion of attempted qualified extortion, violation of secrecy and illegally accessing information. His lawyers argued that as a whistleblower he was entitled to protection under European law. However he was extradited to Portugal two months later and was charged with 147 crimes by the Public Ministry. Portuguese prosecutors claim that Pinto attempted to extort Doyen Sports for one million euros using the identity of Artem Lobuzov, while Pinto's legal team stated that "the team set up by the Public Prosecution to investigate criminality in the football world seems to be more dedicated to pursuing those who denounce it than investigating those who practice the crimes". On 16 April 2019, Pinto was one of the winners of the European whistleblower award promoted by the European United Left (GUE / NGL), along with Julian Assange and Yasmine Motarjemi. Pinto was released from house arrest on 7 August 2020. ==Trial==

The trial started on 4 September 2020, surrounded by strong security measures, never seen before in Portugal. In a short statement before the panel of judges, he said he was a whistleblower who made public a lot of important information which would otherwise never be known, and that he never received money. In several trial sessions, dubious and allegedly criminal acts perpetrated by those in charge of the investigation were identified, having led the panel of judges to make two reports aimed at investigating the conduct of inspectors of the Portuguese Judicial Police. In September 2023, the Portuguese court gave Pinto a four-year suspended sentence after finding him guilty on counts of attempted extortion, illegal access to data, and breach of correspondence. ==In popular culture==

• A Game of Secrets (2022), documentary about the Football Leaks showing footage of Rui Pinto. ==References==