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Sport is a reflection of the world we live in.
And there are a bunch of nefarious characters.
There's always something going on.
Power, politics -
- money, corruption.
The darker recesses of the games.
When you think of a hacker, you think of someone -
- who's in a basement hacking into complex security systems.
And what he did was pretty simple.
He just found the weakest point.
When I gave that click, I opened the door. He just took everything he wanted.
18 million documents, e-mails, contracts, spreadsheets.
Cristiano Ronaldo faces a conviction for tax fraud.
It opens a window in society that was not supposed to be opened.
We were facing a colossal fraud.
What is Doyen? A company in London which is owned by these Kazakh mafiosi.
It was the Wolf of Wall Street invading football.
We were not dealing with Mickey Mouse money but serious money.
Constantly you're wondering who's the puppet master behind these revelations.
Of course it raises the alarms. "Do we have a rat inside?"
He said to me, "Clean football and clear my name."
Nobody knew who was doing it and what would come next. It could be them.
I don't like too much media exposure. I preserve my privacy a lot.
So I don't know how your script for this thing is -
- and I don't care in the end.
Unless you're going to portrait me as the big bandito in the world of football.
But okay, let's go.
In 2015, Nélio Lucas was doing great.
He was doing business with every Portuguese club.
Nélio Lucas is heading one of the major investment funds in football.
He's having a nice time at the beach, so thanks once again for being here.
Nélio Lucas created a company named Doyen Sports Investment.
They were presented in the beginning as someone there to help clubs.
The biggest assets of the clubs are the players.
And you give them an alternative finance for them to acquire those assets.
What does soccer need? A better and more fair distribution of the money.
Fair competition, equal opportunities and professionalism.
If a club couldn't afford a player, instead of going to the bank -
- they would go to Doyen, who would then buy part of that player.
And then that same player would be sold for 20-30 million euros -
- and their margin of profit would be huge.
So they had a nice business model.
From all the big clubs to the players to the agencies. We worked with everybody.
We became probably the most prominent and powerful -
- powerhouse in the industry.
In only four years, they invested more than 100 million euros in players -
- and managed the interest of very famous people -
- like Xavi Hernández, Neymar or David Beckham.
So it was a remarkable success in such a short time.
He was dining in London's most expensive restaurants, driving a Bentley.
He owned a yacht worth more than three million euros.
Always on the phone, in a plane.
I was a phone call away from any president, manager, player.
If I call a president and they see my number, they'll know it's important.
On my WhatsApp, I say that I'm always available for a good deal.
I understood the industry -
- and I think it was successful.
I remember exactly where I was when it first emerged.
I was walking back to my office.
I got a text from a Brazilian lawyer.
And he said, "Have you seen Football Leaks?"
I had no idea what he was talking about, and he sent me this link.
It was to this website. It was called Football Leaks.
And it had some player contracts on it.
There was very confidential information posted there.
My immediate reaction was "Oh God!", because I was writing a book -
- about the player trading market, and it was so hard to get player contracts.
And someone's just put a website on and is giving it away.
We thought of it like some kind of WikiLeaks, a website -
- where someone was posting confidential documents they somehow had obtained.
We weren't used to reading those kind of documents.
They had details and little clauses.
And they seemed legitimate.
On their website, they had a statement...
...saying they wanted to bring some light into the darkness of the football world.
They were sick of how dirty the football industry was -
- and owed it to supporters to show the true face of football.
I tried to e-mail the guys from the website -
- but they never answered my e-mails.
"John" appeared when he decided to speak to the New York Times.
He presented himself as "John" -
- and as a representative of a group of people behind Football Leaks.
When you read about John's interview with New York Times, how did that feel?
It sucked.
Initially, people didn't get the dimensions or the scale of this.
And then it kind of exploded into life.
It was very important to Real Madrid -
- that they kept their biggest star happy, and it wasn't Gareth Bale but Ronaldo -
- who was bought years earlier for a world-record fee.
So, publicly they stated a fee -
- in the 90 millions for Gareth Bale.
It is a world-record deal, right?
I don't want to get involved with that. That's not for us to comment on.
- But it's not a bad deal. - Towards 90 million is a lot of money.
I'm not gonna comment on the amount, but he's worth every penny.
Football Leaks showed -
- this contract that says Gareth Bale cost 101 million euros.
It's quite funny. You cannot upset Cristiano Ronaldo.
When these leaks were published -
- I was absolutely shocked and disgusted. I just think it's so wrong.
It's just nobody's business. It's a private thing.
It kind of blows you away even now to think about.
You have some of the biggest figures in football, whether it's Neymar -
- or Gareth Bale -
- and the biggest transaction is just being pushed out on a random website.
It created a lot of fear because nobody knew who was doing it -
- and no one knew what would come next. It could be them.
If you talk about sports in Portugal, you talk about football.
People are glued to the screen -
- and many people choose football over family and work.
Football is a lifestyle in Portugal.
You have a huge passion regarding three main clubs:
Benfica, Porto and Sporting.
I was born into football.
My very first memory is of FC Porto -
- and I made it my life, both playing and being a fan.
I always loved the magic -
- the cheering, the fumes, the flags, the chants. All those things.
Daily, daily, daily... I've done it my whole life -
- and I'm still here.
Benfica is the biggest club in Portugal with the biggest amount of fans.
And then you have Porto.
They represent an anti-capital, anti-power force from the north.
Benfica is our biggest rival.
To me, Benfica represents corruption and the state.
We're like Israel and Palestine, like Ukraine and Russia.
I clearly remember the day of the first contact.
I was having lunch nearby.
I got a weird e-mail.
So I reply, "How can I verify the authenticity of this material?"
A few minutes later, I receive another e-mail.
It was screenshots of Benfica's e-mail inbox.
So I reply, "Okay, looks real. Do you have more?"
That is how I got 20 gigabytes of information.
It was an exchange of e-mails between a highly respected referee -
- and someone from Benfica's management -
- in which they assumed that the referees were being controlled by Benfica.
Most shocking was a list of phone numbers, addresses -
- and things about the private lives of referees.
Their lovers, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends.
This referee's girlfriend, the daughter of that guy and so on.
It was absolutely shameful.
This is very serious.
It can be used to manipulate the referees.
This was absolutely shocking.
We were facing colossal fraud.
I knew that the material we had was explosive.
Should I go to the police?
Or make it public?
...those were referees who were at the service of Benfica.
This is a referee corruption scheme in favour of Benfica.
Over the course of six months, we revealed e-mails -
- showing Benfica's fraud.
Benfica wanted me arrested live on tv, while I was reading the material on air.
These are phone numbers I've blocked -
- because Benfica fans were calling and sending me death threats.
Eventually, my family and I had to move because of that.
I thought, "Who's sending me this? A hacker?"
A very good hacker, apparently.
I never learned who was sending me this. I asked, but the person didn't reply.
This person was highly critical of the football world.
This Doyen Group were clearly -
- the biggest investors in third-party ownership and they came out of nowhere.
We wanted to know more about them.
I got 20 minutes with Nélio, who I was really looking forward to talking to.
He was the front man for this business.
This slick agent.
Sharp-suited, shiny shoes, good teeth.
I asked him at the time, "Who are your investors?"
"They're very rich. They're private."
"They're so rich that this is just a plaything for them."
It was very hard to get any information.
Someone called me and pointed me to this website. It came out of nowhere.
It was strange.
Once Football Leaks happened, one of the stories -
- had the schematic organisation chart and the company structure.
There was a holding company in Malta -
- and a split of assets with this Nélio Lucas.
For me it was like, "God, we've been looking for this for years!"
Of course it raised the alarms. "Where is this coming from? Who's doing it?"
"Do we have a rat? Is this my shadow? Is this my right hand?"
"My lawyer? My IT guy? Who is it?"
I went to my lawyers, and we pressed charges against whatever was behind this.
And we did it in Portugal because the website was in Portuguese.
The day they filed it to the authorities -
- was the day I received the first e-mail -
- from the person behind Football Leaks.
At a certain point in time, the people behind Football Leaks stopped -
- publishing documents on the website.
And they gave the exclusive to Der Spiegel.
We got a call from Der Spiegel who told us:
"Look. We've contacted one of the guys behind the Football Leaks website."
"He accepted to give us a lot of data."
There were more than 18 million documents.
Everything from e-mails, contracts, pictures, video, spreadsheets.
Nobody knew how many documents there were -
- and which documents would be published next.
So it created quite a sense of fear in the football world.
These stories showed the structures built -
- in order for these guys to be paid.
They suggested that there was an element of potential tax evasion -
- linked to some of the world's biggest players.
Coaches, players and agents used fiscal planning -
- in an extreme way with the clear goal of paying less taxes.
There was Lionel Messi's tax affairs.
José Mourinho at the time. Cristiano Ronaldo was involved.
It attracted the attention of tax authorities across Europe.
Cristiano Ronaldo had to go to court in Madrid -
- to plead guilty to the charges against him of tax fraud.
I was in Madrid to watch this trial.
It was a very intense day with a lot of information.
There was a lot of confusion and excitement.
The world's best player was in court, not knowing what could happen.
Cristiano Ronaldo faces a conviction for tax fraud.
He will pay 19 million euros -
- to clear his criminal record and avoid a prison sentence.
I can imagine the fear that gripped world football as these leaks were coming out.
Who's gonna be next? Because this did have consequences.
I was in my house in London.
It was very early in the morning -
- and I received an e-mail from this person, Artem Lobuzov.
Would you mind reading out the e-mails?
The first e-mail...
"The leak is much bigger than you can imagine ..."
"The entire operation of Doyen is known. The loans coming from the investors -
- the business model in Brazil, Turkey and Central Asia." Bla, bla...
"All this and much more can appear online. Surely you shouldn't want that, right?"
"But we can talk."
This was serious, of course it was.
You don't want a guy inside your house, removing your things in your bedroom -
- taking out your underwear, opening your safe and trying to get access to it.
He continued, "I have no interest in harming you or your collaborators."
"I have nothing against you, even respect for the way -
- you rose to the top of the football world."
And then my reply, "I don't know who you are, but what do you want?"
I was trying to understand who was behind this.
And his immediate reply was very short as well. "A generous donation -
- and you can be sure that all the information will be deleted right away."
Then I asked, "What do you mean by generous donation?"
"Somewhere between 500 thousand and 1 million -
- will be a good donation for this material."
Actually, I was surprised. I thought it would be much more.
You start to think, "What information does he have?"
"What is he going to publish?"
I thought, "Okay, we are dealing with a guy -
- in Russia, China or North Korea."
But to make this even more bizarre, he said to us:
"We can resolve this easily and in the greatest possible secrecy -
- between preferred lawyers." I thought this was a joke.
How can lawyers be involved in extortion -
- or in this kind of operation?
Artem Lobuzov presented his own lawyer.
And a meeting was arranged -
- at a gas station on a highway -
- on the outskirts of Lisbon.
The term "super agent" is made up by the press. I'm not quite sure what it means.
If you ask me personally, I'm a super person, so...
The role of agents in football is a controversial one.
They are the oil of the transfer industry that has grown to seven billion dollars.
As far as I can tell, you are the most successful agent in the world?
I haven't counted other people's money, but numbers-wise -
- and business-wise, I think we are the most successful in the world.
There are a handful of these people -
- at the centre of world football.
They will start with Pini Zahavi, Mino Raiola -
- Jorge Mendes and Jonathan Barnett.
They determine where some of the best talent ends up.
Gareth Bale is the one I'm best known for being associated with -
- because we broke the world record.
It just propelled us to the very top.
For the agents who have spent decades earning huge amounts of money -
- there was no great transparency about how they earned it -
- and exactly how much. That suited them just fine.
Football Leaks showed -
- this huge commission they could make and how they made it -
- the mechanisms inside the contracts. And some of it was quite ugly.
One of the most significant stories in Football Leaks -
- was the story of Paul Pogba's transfer back to Manchester United -
- from Juventus...
...and the amount of money that went to Paul Pogba's agent.
It showed that he was paid tens of millions of euros for his role in this -
- just to be the man who could get this thing done.
That just seems absolutely insane.
Mino made quite a lot of money. Does that make him greedy?
I don't think so. It makes him quite clever.
Every fan in the world wants their team to have the best players.
They should be thankful to the agent for getting them.
I think it's people being jealous.
Would you go as far as to say that you don't care about what fans think of you?
About me? I don't give a damn.
Nélio Lucas was communicating with this Artem Lobuzov for several weeks.
He actually sent a contact of a lawyer who was ready to sit with us. Very bizarre.
The police said, "Find a public place you're comfortable with."
"And I'm sure someone will protect you in case something goes wrong."
I set the place, which was in a gas station in Oeiras.
I wanted a place with other people.
I didn't know if the lawyer was coming. "Is he coming alone or with someone else?"
Imagine you go to a place, there is a truck, and they push you inside it.
Of course it's scary.
The judiciary police was on the outside of the gas station.
And they had two police officers inside, at a table nearby -
- so they could listen in on the conversation and act if necessary.
The emotions as you can imagine were quite powerful -
- because you don't know what to expect.
Fortunately, it was just a meeting between us and this lawyer.
It started like normal people.
"Hello, good afternoon, how are you? My name is this, my name is that."
They tried to propose a way to transform this thing -
- into a document.
They were trying to find a way that it wasn't blackmail.
Then I interrupted and said, "Look, actually I would like to speak."
"First thing I don't understand is how you are going to transform extortion -
- into a contract? It sounds very bizarre."
Nélio Lucas' goal was to make Aníbal Pinto speak -
- so they could get more leads -
- in order to discover who was really behind the attack.
During my conversation with him, I was trying to portray the fact -
- that if this guy is really talented -
- instead of paying him for the silence I would like him to work for me.
I created a way to try to push more from him -
- and it actually worked.
Aníbal Pinto gave me some idea of his qualifications.
First of all he said: "This guy is very talented with computers."
"And he never gets caught. I helped him in a case with a bank in the Caymans."
"He took money, and in the end I managed to save him."
That was interesting for the police investigators.
They started to see a lot of coincidences -
- with a case that happened two years before.
They were wondering, "I wonder if it's the same person behind this."
John in 2018 got in touch with me -
- by encrypted mail.
He was looking for a lawyer, because he was quite scared to be arrested.
I've been a lawyer for 40 years, dedicated to defend main whistleblowers.
I'm still the lawyer of Edward Snowden -
- and Antoine Deltour, who is at the origin of LuxLeaks.
And Hervé Falciani, Swiss Leaks.
So, of course I was interested in Football Leaks.
I flew to Budapest in August 2018...
...just to explore how I could help him.
We had a drink and dinner -
- and we talked extensively about his case.
It was important to obtain his confidence.
And he said to me, as a roadmap -
- as a clear frontier:
"I want to clean football and clear my name."
"Clean football and clear my name."
Football Leaks presented Doyen as an evil organisation.
They started exhibiting contracts between us and the clubs.
And they would really portray us very bad. Very unfairly bad.
The only goal of Doyen Sports was to make money.
It was the Wolf of Wall Street invading football.
They were very strict and very detailed contracts.
If there was an offer above a certain amount for a player -
- the clubs were forced to sell.
If the player is sold for this amount -
- Doyen will get 10-50% of the money that they have invested.
We haven't seen any contract like this before.
Towards the end of 2018, there were revelations that really shook the game.
Thousands and thousands of documents...
It was the whole panorama of football -
- exposed in different ways.
How is this all likely to rock the global game?
Manchester City, this team that is owned by the brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi -
- had allegedly inflated its revenues -
- in a way that, what the revelation showed, was an illegal way.
Massive breaking news. UEFA has decided that Manchester City -
- are to be hit hard for breaking financial rules.
Also around that time, this story that is still having disastrous effects -
- for the FIFA president Gianni Infantino appeared.
This is about these meetings between the FIFA president -
- and the then prosecutor general of Switzerland.
And that investigation into Infantino and those meetings remains ongoing.
Another very significant one was a story about some of Europe's biggest clubs -
- hatching a plot to create a breakaway super league.
It would affect every single fan in Europe -
- and fundamentally rock the football business.
This super league project did materialise -
- albeit in such a poor fashion that it collapsed in 48 hours.
But it's the closest football has come to a seismic breakaway of its kind.
There was a general revulsion from a lot of the public.
You had a sense that there was a decay in football.
But these leaks confirmed it.
That the game had lost its bearings -
- had become unmoored from what football was -
- which was these football teams in their local community -
- giving a few hours of distraction to people.
Instead it's this often vulgar business -
- where power and money are colliding -
- and a few actors are able to take what they can from the people's game.
Constantly you're wondering, "Who is the puppet master -
- behind these revelations?"
At that point in time, the football atmosphere -
- in Portugal was completely toxic.
This is a referee corruption scheme in favour of Benfica.
We were trying to find out more about who was behind the Benfica leaks case.
And we were calling people, calling sources.
We started to hear some rumours -
- but no one was telling his name.
But in early September 2018, a case that involved Benfica got to its end.
And when it ended, a source told us:
"Go there and have a look into the appendices of the process."
"Okay. Why?"
"Because the guy you're looking for, his name is there."
And we went, "Wow! Okay. Let's have a look."
In the morning, I went to the court.
I had asked for permission to see -
- the files about the investigation.
There was a folder which had the case about Benfica.
I was looking, looking, looking -
- until I got to a page.
There was a written note by the public attorney.
It described part of the investigation -
- and part of the meeting at the gas station on the highway.
"This investigation originated in a complaint by Doyen Sports -
- against unknown. The complaint is from Nélio Lucas against Artem Lobuzov."
"There's an identified suspect."
And there it was.
Rui Pinto.
That's how I found the name of Rui Pinto.
It was in the public documents.
- Do you have the magazine with you? - Yes.
- Can we see it? - Sure. You haven't seen it before?
The headline says, "The hacker who stole the Benfica secrets."
Then it has a small text saying he's an IT genius -
- and that he created Football Leaks with information from Doyen -
- Real Madrid, Porto and Sporting -
- and he's being investigated in Portugal and in Spain.
We found out that he was a young guy from Porto -
- and that he was living abroad.
And that he was like a self-made man in terms of IT knowledge.
On Sábado magazine's front page -
- the man suspected of stealing secrets from Benfica is a Portuguese hacker...
When we published that story, it was all over the news for weeks and weeks.
Rui Pinto created Football Leaks.
In 2015, he started getting into football, the mess with companies and clubs.
For months, Rui Pinto's father and sister were the targets of wiretaps.
But one day, they intercepted a message on the telephone of Rui Pinto's father -
- about the purchase of flight tickets to Budapest, Hungary.
Rui Pinto's father and stepmother were followed from the airport -
- to his apartment in Budapest.
Then Rui Pinto was surprised at home early in the morning -
- by the Hungarian police, who served a European arrest warrant -
- with Rui Pinto's name on it, issued by the Portuguese authorities.
The arrest of the mastermind of Football Leaks -
- was a global headline because of the years of crazy stories.
Hi. This is Rui Pinto. I am John -
- the whistleblower from Football Leaks.
John, Rui Pinto, Artem, it is all the same person.
There he was with this hair. This is the guy behind Football Leaks.
Your face drops.
It was quite funny in a way that this small kid -
- had unleashed what he had.
This spiky-haired university student -
- with a backpack and a cherubic, childlike face.
It just did not fit the mould -
- of a man who has brought so much chaos into the world of football.
That's the fascinating part of it. Because when you think of a hacker -
- you think of someone who's in a basement doing very complicated stuff -
- hacking into complex security systems.
And what he did was pretty simple. He just did some phishing.
He just sent e-mails to people. And people don't know how to use computers.
I received an e-mail, apparently from the sports director of FC Porto at that time -
- who wanted to share a file with information on players.
Someone sends an e-mail with an attachment or a link -
- that seems credible, and people will click.
I considered it legit. I pressed to open the file.
In a very logical and very simple way -
- he just found the weakest point in an IT system.
Basically, when I gave that click, I opened the door.
He just went there and took everything he wanted.
Until he was caught.
The Portuguese authorities issued a European arrest warrant -
- for him to be extradited to Portugal.
We knew that he would be put on a plane soon.
In March 2019, he was extradited to Portugal.
He was questioned by a judge and sent to pre-trial detention.
And then it was a new chapter -
- of this saga, this soap opera.
He was sent to jail.
William Bourdon, whom I had worked with on other cases -
- came to see me in my office in the EU Parliament and told me:
"I've been called to defend a young guy who's been arrested in Hungary."
"He's supposed to be the source of Football Leaks."
"He's going to jail and he will be tried in Portugal."
I said, "Portugal did nothing about -
- the money laundering and tax evasion activities -
- that we could see thanks to Football Leaks."
"And now they're going to focus on the guy who has exposed -
- the illicit activity?"
And William asked, "I will need a good lawyer in Portugal -
- to help me with his case."
So I put William in touch with Francisco Teixeira da Mota.
William Bourdon and I came to the conclusion -
- that it would be good to work together.
When he was in jail, we went there once or twice a week.
He was not happy with what we saw in football.
These third-party ownerships that were, for him, destroying football.
He thought it was wrong and hidden from society.
And he decided to make it public.
In Portugal there was a lot of excitement. Everybody called him "the hacker".
He was being portrayed in a very negative way.
And I was asking all the time, "How come the Portuguese authorities -
- take a complaint from Doyen and then go after Rui Pinto?"
The second award goes to a person -
- who is now in custody in Portugal.
About that time, one of the political groups of the European Parliament -
- was giving an award to whistleblowers.
He's the architect of the Football Leaks whistleblowing case.
I went there because among the awardees was Rui Pinto.
Some powerful people would prefer to keep the truth -
- about corruption in the football world in the shadows, and this is unacceptable.
All supporters who are more committed to the value of sports than to money -
- should support Rui Pinto.
Since Rui Pinto wasn't able to be there -
- they asked me if I would be able to deliver this to him.
So I decided to ask permission from the authorities to see him in jail.
I think he was pleased and felt this was indeed a recognition -
- that part of the society really appreciated what he had done.
The first time we met, I was surprised. He looked much younger than he was -
- with a funny hair shape.
He was very serious and very persuaded -
- of the importance of what he had done.
I had to participate in something bigger. I had to...
...try to make a difference.
Fortunately, I had the chance -
- to gather a quantity of documents -
- related to football.
Well, the next steps were to...
...try to expose what was wrong.
I was... impressed with the kid.
I was genuinely impressed.
Public opinion little by little changed.
Remember what happened in some stadiums.
"Thank you, Rui Pinto!"
"Free Pinto!"
People shouting, "Free Pinto!"
Because a community of players -
- understood that what Pinto did -
- makes him a friend of football.
Rui Pinto was in preventive detention -
- and there were many demonstrations demanding the young man's release.
I saw on Facebook that there was a demonstration in support of Rui Pinto.
I contacted the organization and asked if I could bring 200-300 Porto fans.
We also decided to join, not only as citizens but as supporters.
Because a person who did good was being penalised.
I think Rui Pinto should be decorated as a national hero -
- for making this discovery -
- and for having exposed it.
He was more than a year in prison.
He was angry and outraged -
- that the authorities had followed the complaints of the crooks -
- and going after the whistleblower instead of the crooks.
What matters for me and for Football Leaks is that the documents are authentic.
I don't care about the origin. I'm a whistleblower so I have to expose.
That's the only thing that matters to me.
Once I learned that Doyen was -
- the main accuser of Rui Pinto, I did my own investigation into Doyen.
What do I find out? That it is -
- this company who doesn't even have headquarters in Portugal.
That it's based in Malta. Already quite suspicious.
That this Portuguese guy, Nélio Lucas, is a front man.
Malta is in the European Union and it's not forbidden nor a crime -
- to use a tax-efficiency jurisdiction to optimise the results of your business.
If I can pay five instead of ten, why should I pay ten?
For some reason, these things exist. I didn't create them.
What did they have against us? Nothing.
They could claim, "These guys are making a lot of money." Okay.
We were not dealing with Mickey Mouse money but serious money.
So they tried to understand, "Who's behind? Where is this money coming from?"
I was a witness in this court case against Rui Pinto.
The day I was going to court to testify -
- the judge asked, "Explain to me, how did your partners make money?"
What a stupid question. I said, "Look, I don't know how they make money."
Who's behind Nélio Lucas is a very interesting question.
In the Football Leaks document they write:
"Nélio Lucas must be the only face of Doyen."
"Nobody must know who's behind it." And who's behind -
- is a family of Kazakh-Turkish oligarchs called the Arifs.
When the Berlin Wall and the USSR collapsed -
- they made their fortunes in mineral resources.
They built a huge and secret empire.
A maze of offshore companies in all the worst tax havens on the planet.
There are four brothers -
- and Tevfik Arif is the only public figure.
He was based first in Turkey. Then he moved to the US -
- where he began to invest in real estate in association with Donald Trump.
The US Congress has recently established that they are an organisation -
- laundering money for the Russian mafia.
They thought that football would be a good investment.
And at some point they decided to create an office in London -
- that they called Doyen Sports.
In the beginning of the 2010s, Tevfik Arif asks his son -
- Arif Efendi to go to London -
- to run Doyen Sports with Nélio Lucas.
Because of the past of the family, their connections -
- in the heads of people, this leads immediately -
- to something unknown or strange or bizarre.
Immediately you see these people with long beards, Kalashnikovs.
And no, these are people with suits, big investments, international deals.
From there, you just invest your money the best way possible.
The first thing that got the police on the tail of Rui Pinto -
- was the meeting at the highway between Nélio Lucas and Aníbal Pinto.
Aníbal Pinto mentioned, that he had represented his client -
- in a previous investigation where he had hacked into a bank.
A couple of years before Football Leaks, someone was able to access the server -
- of the Caledonian Bank, an offshore bank located on the Cayman Islands.
On September 18th, 2013, Rui Pinto entered the Caledonian Bank servers -
- went to an account of a client and transferred 46,000 dollars -
- to his own bank account in Deutsche Bank in Lisbon.
That transfer went unnoticed.
But then in October, he went back to the Caledonian Bank -
- and transferred 310,000 dollars.
That specific account was part of a pensions fund -
- so they immediately noticed that there was 300,000 dollars missing.
Initially Rui Pinto said, "No, I have nothing to do with it. That's my money."
Then he recognised that the 310,000 dollars weren't his and gave it back -
- but he said that the 46,000 dollars were his.
His lawyer, Aníbal Pinto, went to the lawyers that represent Caledonian Bank -
- and said, "Okay, let's go to court. I will call all your clients to testify -
- and the entire world will know that the bank was hacked."
Immediately the lawyers from the bank said, "No, let's find an agreement."
Rui Pinto would give back half the money from those 46,000 dollars -
- and that's it. In judicial terms, it's a closed case in Portugal.
Rui Pinto's record is clean.
But the Caledonian Bank tells us something about Rui Pinto's past.
It doesn't fit with the story he's telling about himself -
- as a whistleblower, a Robin Hood of the football industry.
Correspondence violation, hacking, IT fraud -
- illegitimate access, illegal tapping.
The Caledonian Bank tells a story of someone who went to a bank -
- in an offshore territory looking for money.
Someone who was trying to enrich himself.
It's this dark side of his own story -
- that doesn't fit with the rest.
It's a contradiction. You see a guy -
- that actually should have some ability.
He did something that you need to have knowledge to do.
Simultaneously, he's probably not the brightest mind in the world.
A guy that takes money from a bank and sends it to his bank account...
It's a little bit, "Come on. At a minimum at least try to pass it somewhere."
We discovered that Doyen Sports had absolutely no interest -
- in the careers of the football players they invested in.
For them, football players were like objects.
For instance, when Brazil qualified for the World Cup semi-finals in 2014 -
- they wrote: "Neymar bitch. Nigga making us money."
Another example is Radamel Falcao. In 2013, he moved to Monaco.
They made a very good profit with Falcao's sale, but they wanted more.
They published WhatsApp texts between you and Arif. I'll just read them out.
They have you saying about Falcao:
"He went to Monaco, that fuck. His career is finished."
This is a message between him and me.
If I go to your mobile phone and start reading messages -
- I'm sure I'm going to find something you don't want exposed.
It's like if I see a girl in a restaurant and say, "Nice boobs. Nice ass."
Then you read that out of context and say, "What kind of word has he selected?"
We can see from the documents that Doyen has a regular use of prostitutes.
Nélio Lucas and Arif Efendi often discuss prostitutes on WhatsApp.
In order to be discreet, Arif Efendi calls the prostitutes "footballers".
"Organise footballers now. Don't fucking waste time."
"We're gonna end up like last night with nothing."
Definitely, me not involved in this. For sure not. 100%.
Run your biggest, deepest investigation.
Got it. Can you tell me about your trip to Miami in August 2013?
In August 2013, there is a promotional tournament in Miami -
- with some big European teams.
It was a trip like any other. I went there to see the pre-season games.
His main goal is not to watch football but to try to sell one of the players -
- in which he has a stake, a French player, Geoffrey Kondogbia.
There is a release clause of 20 million euros in his contract.
So Nélio Lucas is doing everything he can so that Kondogbia is sold.
And we know that because they are discussing the matter on WhatsApp.
At some point Nélio Lucas writes to Arif Efendi:
He says that even Florentino Pérez, the president of Real Madrid -
- removed his tie and danced, partied on the dance floor.
We went to a club. We had nice drinks and a lot of fun.
Something normal between friends. I'm happy he enjoyed it.
The most interesting is what happens the day after.
The Arif family have a huge penthouse on Fisher Island -
- which is basically a billionaire's island, just off Miami Beach.
Nélio Lucas texts Arif Efendi and tells him:
The messages are quite explicit about the fact that this is a sex party -
- and that the girls he wants to bring are prostitutes -
- and they want to invite Florentino Pérez.
Arif Efendi's father, Tevfik Arif... Arif Efendi calls him Skip.
And Nélio answers, "I will give Skip's room to Florentino then."
Arif answers: "For 20 million euros, for Kondogbia."
I don't recognise these texts. It is definitely not from me.
If I want to do something like this, I don't need to ask permission.
This is like, "The movie is nice -
- but if you add a nude sex scene, it's much more interesting."
At least think and come up with a better story.
Florentino Pérez strongly denied -
- having taken part in this party.
In another text a few days later, Nélio Lucas says to Arif Efendi -
- that Florentino Pérez was interested in the player but would pay only 15.
So, finally AS Monaco accepted to pay the 20 million and to buy Kondogbia.
September 2020. It's the first day of Rui Pinto's trial -
- in Lisbon's main court, and the apparatus is enormous.
It was a full house. You had dozens of reporters from around the world -
- waiting outside for the trial to start.
There were police all over the place.
And there were rubberneckers and the public trying to understand the circus.
When will Rui Pinto make a statement?
I don't commit crimes. I'm an honourable lawyer, and I'm here to clarify.
This was a major event for the country.
Rui Pinto is accused of 90 crimes -
- among them attempted extortion.
He faced years and years of detention.
Rui Pinto represents a world free from corruption -
- and doesn't act out of personal greed or personal interest.
He stands up for a better society.
He doesn't enter through the main door, he goes through the garage.
Wears a bulletproof vest in the courtroom.
Extreme security measures never seen before in Portugal.
At the same point in time, there was a trial for terrorism -
- in which some people were accused of being a part of the Islamic State.
And security measures weren't that high.
People have lost a lot of money. People have had their reputations shredded.
They are furious that their innermost business secrets were leaked.
If you've upset that many people, there is a chance that one or two of them -
- might want to do you harm.
Knowledge is power.
So people that have power try to prevent others from having knowledge.
I think Rui opens a window in society that was not supposed to be open.
He's been accused of 90 crimes of improper access -
- correspondence violation, illegitimate access.
The hacker guaranteed before the court that he didn't consider himself a hacker -
- but a whistleblower who revealed a lot of information -
- that made it possible to open several inquiries -
- not only in Portugal but also in other European countries.
Thank you for hearing me today. My name is Edward Joseph Snowden.
The final accounting of any act of whistleblowing -
- is found in its consequences.
Rui Pinto is the Edward Snowden of the fight against corruption.
In the case of Rui Pinto, there is no question -
- that the stories uncovered -
- have advanced the public interest. And I hope you will agree.
Such an exceptional whistleblower as Pinto has to be protected.
Has to be recognised by the judge as someone -
- who sacrificed himself for public interest.
I think it's offensive to Edward Snowden when you compare Rui Pinto to him.
You can't compare them. You just can't.
The whistleblower defence, for me, is slightly worrying.
The idea that someone can essentially walk into your house -
- see if you're not a good person and then leave.
It doesn't work that way. The ends don't justify the means.
Did you ever ask him where he got his information from or did you not care?
I did ask him.
He was never clear to me, so I thought that I should not insist too much.
Can you explain how Rui Pinto got hold of the material?
I don't worry about it. As a lawyer I don't need to know that.
The details of his adventure are not a matter of interest for me.
I don't give a damn.
What does it change?
The first day he spoke in court, Rui Pinto assured that he was a whistleblower -
- and that he had never asked for money in exchange for not revealing information.
In the background, Doyen is the main complainant -
- that takes the pirate to court.
The important thing that's on trial is the extortion attempt.
It doesn't fit with the story Rui Pinto is telling about himself.
They tried to portray it like David against Goliath.
These guys from Doyen are banditos, full of cash -
- and this guy is in the middle of nowhere trying to expose them.
You can't not talk about the extortion case.
He has spoken about wanting to rid football of all the murkiness.
If this guy appeared at a point to try and profit -
- from his ability to access files he shouldn't -
- this is a little stain across all of that.
It will be an original sin for the Football Leaks project.
He never the intention to receive any money.
It was just a game. It was just a game.
I decided to play with them. I contacted Nélio Lucas.
I basically said, "Yeah, I have some documents about Doyen."
I wanted to see their reaction. I wanted to know -
- how valuable these documents were for them.
I wanted to know how far they were ready to go.
He feigned to have the willingness to receive money -
- to demonstrate their fear.
Because if you accept to pay some money -
- it's because you're obsessed to maintain a law of silence.
If there is something that does not interest Pinto it's money.
He doesn't give a damn.
It doesn't make any sense that they're just trying to see -
- how much money Doyen was available to pay.
There are some e-mails in which Rui Pinto talks with Aníbal Pinto...
...about setting up an account in Malta...
...because he would have fiscal benefits.
It's highly ironic he's fighting fiscal evasion and people paying less taxes...
...but he himself saw that he would pay less tax in Malta than in Hungary.
I think Rui Pinto did an excellent job.
He helped the Portuguese and the world -
- to understand everything that is happening in football.
He achieved all of that.
The whole machine that was assembled was dismantled.
I will invite him to come and see a game -
- so that everyone can applaud him and thank him for everything he has done.
You may say that thanks to Rui Pinto some illegal behaviour -
- of some actors in the football industry is no longer possible.
I recall everything that was written about me.
These guys are calling you a criminal -
- like you're acting for these bad organisations in the world.
You don't sleep. You get nervous.
You lose business opportunities.
The guy who ran Doyen... I don't wanna mention the name, but...
What he was doing and how he lived his life in the football world was terrible.
There has been criminal investigations opened in several countries.
A real awareness of the dirty tricks of the football world.
How are those stories received?
You want an honest answer? People don't care.
That's on the news cycle for a couple of days -
- but the next weekend, Cristiano scores two goals and everything goes away.
The absolute paradox of this story is -
- that when the trial started, on one hand he appeared as a protected witness.
Simultaneously he's criminalised.
He did a lot of harm to me, to my company, to my family, a lot.
I hope he pays for what he did -
- and I'm sure that justice will make him pay.
In the beginning, there probably was a financial motivation -
- but I think that eventually he changed.
And I think his goal was really to try to reveal stuff he thought was wrong.
Those are two versions of him. A hero and a villain.
It puts your mind in a real dilemma.
It tells you the world really functions in a grey area.
There is nothing that is completely pure -
- and not this other end which is pure evil.
There is this kind of mess in the middle that we all are operating in.
Subtitles: Dansk Video Tekst