Whistleblower who exposed Man City's financial breaches claims his 'life is at risk'

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Tom Weber | Writer

Rui Pinto, the Football Leaks hacker who exposed Man City's financial malfeasance, believes that his life is in grave danger after the Portuguese government revoked his police protection.

On Tuesday, the Premier League announced that Man City had been found guilty of the vast majority of the 115 charges brought against them for financial breaches and non-cooperation in the league's subsequent investigation.

In a remarkable statement with incredibly strong language, the Premier League published the findings of the independent commission overseeing the case, with Man City indicted for handing out "sham contracts" and falsifying their accounts, while key witnesses were accused of lying.

Man City, who deny all allegations and claim to have "irrefutable evidence" to support their case, have appealed the verdict. The club will fight tooth and nail to prove their innocence. No sanctions have as yet been decided.

The whole thing began in 2017 when hacker Rui Pinto gained access to internal documents at Man City via a phishing email. The confidential information was published by Der Spiegel the following year and kickstarted the Premier League's investigation.

Pinto fears for his life

Pinto, who had set up the Football Leaks website in 2015, was arrested in Hungary in 2019 and received a four-year suspended sentence for attempted extortion, illegal access to data and breach of correspondence by a Portuguese court in September 2023.

The security measures in place for his trial, which started in 2020, were described as unprecedented at the time, illustrating the sheer importance of Pinto's leaks and the fallout they caused.

Up until this week, Pinto had been in witness protection. He now says that the Portuguese authorities have put his "life at risk" after revoking his police security shortly after the Premier League published the independent commission's guilty verdict.

In a statement on X, Pinto announced that he had started a fundraiser in order to relocate to an undisclosed location before his protection officially ends on 10 October. The goal of this campaign is to raise €3 million.

"On Wednesday, just hours after the verdict officially confirming Manchester City’s guilt, the Commission responsible for Portugal's witness protection programme informed me of its decision to terminate my participation in the programme and withdraw my police protection, thereby knowingly placing me in a life-threatening situation," Pinto wrote.

"Given these circumstances, I have no alternative but to relocate, within the next few days, to an undisclosed location for an indefinite period of time, due to the multiple death threats I have received and the serious risk of an assassination attempt against me.

"For this reason, I have just set up a GoFundMe campaign and I am asking for everyone's support to help me survive this serious situation created by the Portuguese State, which, as I have already stated, has knowingly decided to place my life at risk.

"I would like to take this opportunity to extend a special thanks to everyone who continues to support Football Leaks, and I can give everyone one guarantee: the fight will most certainly continue!"

Earlier on Friday, Pinto had published a scathing statement from his lawyers in which this measure from the Portuguese authorities is described as an "act of state terrorism."

The statement read: "Rui Pinto, the whistleblower behind 'Football Leaks,' has been notified on Wednesday that the special security program he has benefited from since August 2020 will end on October 10.

"In a few days, without being heard beforehand, as required by law, he would lose the protected, confidential residence assigned to him and be forced to find new housing urgently, with no guarantee that police protection will continue.

"His situation is now critical. The threats against him are not merely theoretical; he was assaulted in Lisbon last April. His revelations implicated powerful figures with vast resources, and many resulting legal proceedings are still ongoing, as evidenced by the decision handed down just days ago by the Premier League’s independent commission regarding Manchester City. Abruptly deprived of his protected housing and plunged into a state of extreme precariousness, Rui Pinto would be more vulnerable now than at any time since 2020.

"Rui Pinto has cooperated with the Portuguese justice system, and it was this cooperation that justified placing him under protection. His revelations, utilised by numerous judicial, tax, and sports authorities across Europe, starting with France, have advanced transparency and integrity in football. The states that have benefited from his actions cannot simply turn their backs on the person who took the risk to bring them to light.

"In accordance with the law, an administrative appeal with suspensive effect will be filed against this decision. Rui Pinto’s lawyers, confident that the Portuguese authorities would give due consideration to his situation, asked, last Wednesday, the Ministry of Justice to reconsider this decision, to disclose the details of the risk reassessment upon which it is based, to ensure that their client is heard, and to guarantee, in any event, the continuity of his protection. No answer was received till now.

"This decision and the way it was made, regrettably, doesn’t respect the rule of law and constitutes an act of state terrorism. We can’t accept that."

Written by

Tom Weber | Writer

Tom Weber is an experienced, multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer as part of his freelance work for FootballTransfers.

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