Hacker threatens to release incriminating Manchester City documents

The hacker behind the Football Leaks scandal claims to have more unpublished evidence showing breaches of financial rules by Manchester City.

Speaking at a conference in Marbella, Rui Pinto and his lawyer said he had already handed over five hard drives to French and German authorities.

They include “more about City”, said Pinto, who claims they are relevant to the 115-charge Premier League case due to be heard this autumn.

“I am confident they will find criminal relevance,” Pinto said, speaking remotely in a session titled “Financial scandals that have rocked European football” at the OffshoreAlert Marbella conference.

Pinto appeared at the conference with his French lawyer William Bourdon. The Sun newspaper later reported, however, that legal representatives had indicated that Pinto’s new evidence relating to the City had not yet been published.

“We have been approached by investigators to share information about Manchester City that has not been released before,” Pinto’s legal representative said.

“We haven’t released the information yet but we have a massive file of documents relating to Manchester City which has not yet been released. The files will be released at some point, we can’t say when, but we will.”

Pinto allegedly collected 70 million in documents from personal email accounts from Manchester City and PSG. In November 2018, German publication Der Spiegel claimed that City and their sponsors manipulated contracts to circumvent Uefa’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations and said their source was a whistleblower they called “John”, who was the pseudonym under which Pinto created Football Leaks.

Last year, a Portuguese court gave Pinto a four-year suspended sentence after finding him guilty of attempted extortion, illegal access to data and breach of mail. The 35-year-old, who leaked millions of documents, claimed he was a whistleblower and not a hacker. City deny all allegations and any wrongdoing, but Pinto, who is believed to be in witness protection, told the conference via video link: “Information about Man City showed sums of money paid by the club that were not mentioned to the football authorities. These documents are part of the Premier League’s investigation into City.

“I have now handed over five hard drives to the French and German authorities with millions of documents, including several on City, and described what is on each. I am confident they will find criminal relevance.”

According to The Sun, Pinto added that he had received anonymous threats in recent years. “I know a bunch of European football clubs were investigating me,” he said. “They met in London and were very concerned about the new leaks. They were looking to gather information about my life.”

The Premier League’s allegations against City, who deny wrongdoing, include 54 failures to provide accurate financial information from 2009-10 to 2017-18, 14 failures to provide accurate details of player and manager payments from 2009-10 to in 2017-18, five failures to comply with Uefa rules, including FFP from 2013-14 to 2017-18, seven breaches of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules from 2015-16 to 2017-18 and 35 failures to co-operate with Premier League investigations between December 2018 and February 2023.

Potential expulsion from the league is among the punishments available if the club is found guilty. The case cannot reach the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but either side could appeal, prompting speculation that the saga could take years to resolve.

In a 2020 ruling, UEFA banned City from the Champions League for two seasons and fined them €30 million. However, the penalty was overturned by Cas.