If you aren’t familiar with Rui Pinto, he is the famous football hacker who is known for exposing sensitive tax info which led to criminal tax prosecutions of several top players. Pinto, also prompted the United States to reopen a sexual investigation against football star Cristiano Ronaldo by leaking sensitive info on his then website Football Leaks. Information made public by Football Leakes includes player contracts, confidential emails, and internal team documents.
The Computer guru hacker was arrested back in January 2019. His crimes vary between 2015-2019 and he was charged with 147 crimes by a Portugal national prosecutor. Pinto, a Portugal national was often known to have an obsession with the football world’s personal internal affairs. Publishing hundreds of illegal documents he collaborated with a number of European media outlets to reveal the not so glamorous things that happen underground in the corrupt football world.
Right before his arrest in Hungary, the perky hacker decided to take things up a notch from exposing the football world to billionaires outside the football world. The 31-year-old at the time of his arrest held valuable data on the former president of Angola’s daughter, Isabel Dos Santos. Investigators believe he held this info with the intent to blackmail and receive a large sum of money in an offshore account also linked to the computer wiz.
Thanks to information leaked on Isabel dos Santos, it was gathered that she and her husband exploited her country’s wealth in the sum of $2 billion. According to info obtained by Pinto’s hard drive, Isabel Dos Santos embezzled and allegedly defrauded during her tenure as head of the state’s oil giant company Sonangol. Pinto was only recently revealed as the source of the popular “Luanda Leaks” which held a collection of 715,000 emails, charts, contracts, and audits.
Since Pinto’s arrest, he has agreed to cooperate with investigators and will work with a committee in the Football Association to expose the dirty secrets that go on underground. So far, his cooperation has led to dozens of prosecutions for tax evaders. With the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Paul Pogba, and Alexis Sanchez all allegedly hiding money in an attempt to pay less on their taxes.
Of recent, a new report released indicated Pogba allegedly hid money in an offshore account after a move from Juventus to the Red Devils in 2016. The same report also indicates Pogba’s superstar agent Mino Raiola was the middleman in negotiating Pogba’s blackmail fee. It is believed this is the reason why Pogba has not left the superstar agent though wanting new representatives.
With Pinto, now working with investigators more details on the corruption that goes on in the football world will be exposed soon.
