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“WikiLeaks” began in 2010. What Julian Assange published, about human rights violations, assassinations by governments, corruption of officials and revelations about the main systems that control world events, was the first spark. What was completed by Edward Snowden, who revealed the world’s most famous intelligence organization scandal related to the “Prism” spy program, was the largest leak in history, giving people the right to know that governments they spied on each of them. As for Roy Pinto, he may be the third “gentleman”, and in the opinion of his lawyer, “Snowden international corruption, and must be recognized as one of the greatest whistleblowers of the beginning of the century.”
“Illegal access to information, data theft and attempted extortion” are among the charges Binto faces. The young man is being tried for denouncing global corruption, and he will pay the price for what he did throughout his life, if not in jail, then in exile, he will take it as a refuge to escape from those who want to harm him. Its story began in 2016, three years after Snowden’s appearance and six years after WikiLeaks. He, in turn, created a website called “Football Leaks”, and his first destination was the Netherlands. It was revealed that the “Twente” club had entered into an illegal agreement with an investment company and players’ agents, which resulted in the club being suspended from participating in European championships for three years. Then he brought the German newspaper “Spiegel” into play and cooperated with dozens of journalists, submitting 70 million documents and about “3.4 terabytes” of information. Its biggest leak was related to the violation by the English “Manchester City” of the rules of fair play, which led to the club being banned from participating in the European Championship for two years and imposing a fine, before the decision was annulled upon appeal. Before that, he revealed the tax evasion system used in soccer, and mentioned big names, including the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, his compatriot coach José Mourinho and the Argentine Lionel Messi. But the leaked documents of the Portuguese club Benfica, accusing him of trying to control the league’s referees, is what really threatened his life, due to fears of his liquidation by the club’s fanatic fans. Pinto not only attacked clubs, players, coaches and their agents, he also reached FIFA, in the person of its Swiss president, Gianni Infantino. Abuse of power. Something seemed to have paved the way for the Swiss judiciary to open a criminal investigation against the FIFA president, which is still ongoing, related to the corruption case known as “FIFA Gate”.
The biggest leak of Pinto related to the English ‘Manchester City’ violating the rules of the fair financial game
In the first session of the trial, Pinto defended himself by saying that he was an “informant” and not a “hacker” or a “hacker”. For him, what he did was “shed light on the dark side of the football business.” Disclosure of information to the public was his first objective, but he is accused of blackmailing “Dawian Sport”, an investment fund related to player transfers, by obtaining a sum of money from him in exchange for not disclosing his documents. However, Pinto, who acknowledges his contact with the fund, defends himself in this case that his objective was a “test” of the fund, without “malicious intent”, and confirms that he did not get “a penny”.
His defense team explained that Pinto cooperated with the French, Belgian, Swiss and Maltese authorities, and that the French authorities wanted him to be included in the witness protection program, but the Portuguese authorities wanted to detain him, due to his accusation of leaking. information from the computers of the Attorney General’s Office, the Portuguese Football Association and one of the most important. Local law firms, the Lisbon Club of Portugal, as well as the investment fund “Douayan Sport”.
Pinto’s trial, which lasts about four months, is expected to feature Edward Snowden via video, as one of the most important witnesses. He was finally admitted to the witness protection program in Portugal, having previously been under house arrest, without access to the internet, after his release from detention, even if staying home is a detention in itself. Overall, Pinto and the team of journalists he works with were not content with uncovering corruption in soccer, but they also went the way of Assange, as they are accused of leaking 700,000 documents containing the secret documents of what became known as “Lakes of Luanda”, which revealed the financial empire of Isabel dos Santos. Daughter of the former Angolan president, who is under investigation for seizure of the country’s financial coffers.
Your case raises a recurring question: What will change? Snowden had the biggest leak, and the world was really aware of the existence of a comprehensive surveillance system for espionage, but was this stopping governments from continuing to violate privacy, but rather from investing it, selling information and exploiting it? Did the criminals exposed by Assange and his team really get the punishment they deserved? Will clubs really refrain from circumventing regulations and will players, coaches and agents be required to pay taxes? Does Pinto pay the price for his heroism?
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