Rui Pinto (pictured in an undated pictured) has been named by media in Lisbon as the suspect arrested as part of a probe into the hacking website Football Leaks
A Portuguese hacker named as the cyber criminal behind Football Leaks has been arrested in Hungary.
The 30-year-old, who media in Lisbon are claiming is a university dropout called Rui Pinto, was held following a lengthy investigation by Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria.
Pinto has been forced to deny he is the mystery individual who revealed the rape claim against Ronaldo, alleged breaches of financial fair play rules by Manchester City and the infamous Beckham emails in which he allegedly branded the honours committee ‘unappreciative c#### for missing out on a knighthood.’
The organisation also detailed how Jose Mourinho avoided paying tax on millions of dollars of earnings by channelling money to the British Virgin Islands.
Spanish sports daily Marca named Pinto as the ‘artifice’ of Football Leaks in a March 2016 article, which the man at the centre of the extraordinary claims described as a hoax.
Pinto later met a journalist from a sports website in the Hungarian capital Budapest to deny he was Mr Football Leaks.
In the same month a man known only as ‘John’ who has been identified as the individual behind the organisation, met a German journalist to talk about his work.
The journalist, Rafael Buschmann, reported the meeting took place in an ‘Eastern European city’ and said ‘John’ was Portuguese.
The Budapest arrest is believed to be linked to a hacking scandal which affected Portuguese side Benfica among others and led to scandalous reports about match-fixing and the European giants allegedly offering prostitutes to referees.
The student bar where the alleged hacker, who studied history at university, hangs out in Budapest
In October last year Portuguese magazine Sabado named Pinto as the man suspected of stealing documents relating to the rape allegations Cristiano Ronaldo is facing.
The magazine said: ‘The documents from the case involving Ronaldo in Las Vegas, including the agreement signed by the player and the woman accusing him of rape, Kathryn Mayorga, were stolen using computers from the universe of representatives and lawyers closest to the footballer [businessman Jorge Mendes and lawyer Carlos Osorio de Castro].
‘The suspect everyone is hunting is already known to the Portuguese police, two of the biggest three Portuguese football clubs and one of the largest football investment funds, Doyen.
‘It’s the Portuguese computer hacker Rui Pinto, one of those involved in and perhaps the biggest promoter of the Football Leaks case and the theft of Benfica internal emails.’
In an earlier article the same magazine carried a front page picture of Pinto on September 13 last year alongside the headline: ‘The hacker that stole Benfica’s secrets.’
It said in a sub-heading: ‘He is less than 30 and lives in Eastern Europe. He’s a computer genius who in his first crime siphoned off 270,000 euros from the Cayman Islands.
‘He created Football Leaks with information from Doyen, Real Madrid, Porto FC and Sporting. He’s under investigation in Portugal and Spain.’
In an inside eight-page spread it said: ‘Rui Pinto has not turned 30 yet and he’s already a star of computer crime, known to every police investigative unit probing this type of crime in Europe.’
It said he had been investigated in Portugal in 2015 on suspicion of having stolen the secrets of Sporting FC and football investment fund Doyen Investment Sports as well as the contracts of Porto FC players, above all those involving the payment of commissions to Alexandre Pinto da Costa.
Football Leaks revealed a well-publicised rape claim against Cristiano Ronald (seen in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday)
It also described him as the ‘common denominator’ of three criminal complaints filed with the Portuguese courts since September 30 2015.
It described him as hailing from Lavadores beach, a semi-urban beach in Vila Nova de Gaia, and said he became an Erasmus student in Hungary after studying history at university and falling in love with a female lawyer when he returned to Portugal.
It wrote: ‘In 2015 he gate-crashed the world of football by diverting thousands of documents from intermediary firms and clubs that he began to share on Football Leaks.
‘At the time he presented himself as a moraliser of the world of sport, which he felt was rotten because of the millions involved in the business and the more or less obscure payments made to the intermediaries.’
Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria police confirmed the arrest of an unnamed 30-year-old in a press release.
A spokesman said he was held on a European Arrest Warrant on suspicion of crimes of attempted extortion and theft of trade secrets following an investigation involving a national Portuguese police cybercrime unit.
Carlos Cabreiro, who heads up the Policia Judiciaria unit confirmed ‘The arrest happened today in Budapest, Hungary.
‘Portuguese police were present during the detention and the normal procedures for the detainee’s extradition to Portugal will now be followed.’
He added: ‘It’s a suspect the PJ have been looking for some time and whose name has been widely circulated in the press.
‘The arrest is an individual one but of course we will continue to work on establishing the extent of the criminal activity.
‘It’s premature to link it to a specific target. The crimes he is suspected of carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
‘There is evidence pointing to the practice of the alleged crimes being carried out over a period of time and being harmful to several institutions, including the Portuguese state.’
There is no evidence at this stage to suggest Portuguese police will end up accusing convicted hacker Pinto of being the mystery ‘Mr Football Leaks’ as Marca have claimed he is.