Lawyers for the man, Rui Pinto, 30, immediately said they planned to appeal the decision made by a court in Budapest, where he was arrested in January. They argued that his whistle-blowing activities far outweighed any crimes he might have committed in securing the documents. In Portugal, Mr. Pinto is charged with an extortion attempt in 2015 on a secretive investment fund that had bet millions of dollars in the player transfer market. The leaks first emerged in 2015, on a website called Football Leaks, before Mr. Pinto, a year later, joined with the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel and a group of other European news media organizations to slowly disseminate related news articles. They painted an unflattering picture of an industry troubled by questionable efforts to avoid millions of dollars in tax, flagrant rule breaking by some top clubs and an alleged sexual assault by one of soccer’s biggest stars, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Source: New York Times March 05, 2019 15:11 UTC