Cristiano Ronaldo could be called to give evidence in a new case against alleged hacker Rui Pinto after Portuguese authorities charged the man behind Football Leaks with 377 separate offences.
The elusive figure with hedgehog hair behind a trove of more than 18 million documents will find out later this week if he has been found guilty of 90 other charges in a different trial that has lasted more than two years.
But Pinto, who has claimed that he is a whistleblower deserving of protective status, last week learned that he faces an even greater number of charges. And Ronaldo has been named among a group of more than 100 people who could be called to testify in a case brought by Portugal’s Public Ministry.
Clubs allegedly affected by Pinto’s work included Premier League champions Manchester City and the Spanish giants Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The new indictment, dated July 4 and signed by prosecutor Vera Camacho, said that 202 of the 377 charges are for qualified unlawful access, 134 are for violation of correspondence, 23 for aggravated violation of correspondence and 18 are for computer damage.
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The Public Ministry alleges that Pinto sought “to gain surreptitious and unauthorised access to the computer systems of various entities” and acted "with the intention of improperly entering the computer systems."
Prosecutors allege that Pinto, 34, illegally accessed the email of a lawyer acting on Ronaldo’s behalf and gave the German outlet Der Spiegel information about a rape allegation made by a woman in Las Vegas.
Ronaldo’s legal team said the document published by Der Spiegel was "completely fabricated" in an attempt to defame him and last year a Nevada judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the complainant because the woman’s attorney had shown "bad-faith conduct" through the use of "purloined" confidential documents.
Rui Pinto pictured during his trial in September 2020.Mirror Football is now on Threads! You can follow us here
On Thursday Lisbon’s Central Criminal Court is set to rule in a separate case whether Pinto is guilty of 89 hacking offences and an additional charge of attempted extortion.
It will mark the end of a process that began in January 2019, when Pinto was arrested in Budapest and extradited. The trial itself has lasted more than two years.
Prosecutors in the initial trial have stated they believe Pinto acted alone in accessing the millions of files.
During evidence Pinto told the court that he should be given protective status as a whistleblower, only to later admit to hacking and expressing remorse for an alleged attempt to blackmail a leading executive from an investment fund.
Pinto’s lawyer has previously said that he believes his client will be convicted and sentenced to a lengthy spell behind bars. On one hand Pinto told the court: “I was outraged by what I discovered and I decided to make it public. I never did anything for money.”
But later Pinto said he “recognises that my conduct could be framed as extortion” in relation to an accusation that he demanded money from Nelio Lucas, the chief executive of Doyen Sports, a Malta-based and Kazakh-funded investment group that has profited from the transfers of players.
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The trial heard that his alleged victims have also included Sporting Lisbon and the Portuguese Football Federation.
As the initial Football Leaks website said upon its launch in 2015, Pinto’s motivation was to shine a light on "the principal protagonists in the dishonest football industry" - and to varying degrees authorities have used them to punish clubs and players.
Documents published by Pinto were imperative to UEFA banning Manchester City from the Champions League (only for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn the suspension on appeal). City said the leaks were an "organised and clear" attempt to harm their reputation and have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. But the documents made available by Football Leaks will remain a factor in the Premier League’s case against the English champions having confirmed 115 charges of misconduct earlier this year.
Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo were both fined significant sums over their tax affairs.Documents in relation to financial operations at Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain were also among the tranche of files. In November 2018 the Ligue 1 club said it had "always strictly complied with all applicable laws and regulations and firmly denies the allegations.” Separately, the club admitted to racially profiling young players across several years in the last decade following a separate leak.
Dozens of A-list names were investigated and charged for tax evasion following the leaks. Ronaldo accepted a €18.8m fine in 2019 after Spanish prosecutors said that he had committed a "voluntary and conscious breach of his fiscal obligations” during his time as a Real Madrid player. Jose Mourinho was given a one-year suspended prison sentence and agreed to pay €2.2m after being charged with a number of tax breaches.
Elsewhere, the Swiss federal prosecutor Michael Lauber resigned after secret talks with Gianni Infantino in relation to historic corruption at FIFA became public.
Pinto also shone a spotlight on plans from clubs to form a European Super League and published documents outlining how third-party ownership led to agencies making millions from the economic rights of stars.
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