THE “Football Leaks” hacker Rui Pinto is the subject of a second probe for a further 377 offences, his lawyers said yesterday.

The decision for Pinto’s original case, whose victims included top Portuguese football club Sporting, investment fund Doyen Sports and the Portuguese Football Federation, had been postponed from April to this Thursday.

“This accusation is the strategic work from the public minister aiming to drag out Rui Pinto’s legal process,” Francisco Teixeira da Mota and William Bourdon said.

The accusations in the latest investigation date between 2016-2019 with Pinto’s representatives saying there would be a third probe to come.

The Prosecutor-General’s Office did not reply when asked for comment from AFP with the new accusations including alleged offences against Benfica as well as other clubs and even Portugal’s national tax authority.

Pinto’s “Football Leaks” trove contains some 18.6 million documents, which he began posting on the internet in 2015. 

Germany’s magazine Der Spiegel and other European outlets then acquired some documents and published details. 

Pinto continued hacking and leaking documents for several years.

The leaks sparked criminal investigations in Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Switzerland.

Pinto, 34, also said he is behind the “Luanda Leaks”, a release of 715,000 compromising documents that focus on Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos. – AFP, July 11, 2023.