
Hacker Who Revealed Soccer Secrets Is Charged with 147 Crimes - fortran77
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/sports/football-leaks-rui-pinto.html
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jedberg
Kind of hard to pull of the whistleblower defense with this one:

"The indictment also detailed the hack of Doyen and a subsequent incident in
which Pinto is accused of assuming the identity Artem Lobuzov as part of an
extortion attempt and contacting the firm’s chief executive, Nelio Lucas, in
October 2015 to offer him the chance to prevent the release of the firm’s
documents in return for a “generous donation" of between 500,000 and 1 million
euros."

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Causality1
Assuming of course that isn't completely fabricated.

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AFascistWorld
That's a possibility.

[https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%83%AD%E5%88%A9](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%83%AD%E5%88%A9)

[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-05/19/content_294108...](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-05/19/content_29410813.htm)

A case of Chinese toxic baby formula, the company contacted the father after
having reached a settlement, to offer him another deal, reportedly 500k
dollars, the meeting was recorded, used as evidence in extortion lawsuit
against him in the company's local court. The father was jialed for 5 years
before exoneration.

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spacemanmatt
Some guy tried to over-settle with my dad the same way once, and he refused
it, but also later found out the guy had a reputation for offering these
ridiculous deals then suing for usury.

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77pt77
> suing for usury

Is this a thing?

Are we in biblical times?

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andrewem
Many states have laws on maximum interest that can be charged, though at this
point there are so many loopholes they basically no longer have any effect.

[https://statelaws.findlaw.com/consumer-laws/details-on-
state...](https://statelaws.findlaw.com/consumer-laws/details-on-state-
interest-rate-laws.html)

~~~
spacemanmatt
Obviously it's been a while, but the local business calculation I observed
was, it was always better to not be sued than to be sued. And if the suit was
unavoidable (e.g. guy is just nutso-litigious) it's better to have declined
all business with him in the first place.

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ngcazz
If the Portuguese were fish, football would be the water. The media industry
feeds and thrives off the constant hubbub of corruption and intrigue. Of
course he’s in big trouble for exposing anything about it.

~~~
chiefalchemist
With that said, to me, he's lucky to be alive. International football makes
the USA's NFL look like a toddlers' playdate.

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peteretep
> involving the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo

No joke, I wonder how vigorously he’d be being prosecuted if he hadn’t caused
National Treasure Rinaldo problems.

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petepete
Convicted tax fraud Cristiano Ronaldo?

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molmalo
In Spain, when he left Real Madrid.

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philshem
Relevant New Yorker article from this summer

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/03/how-
football-l...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/03/how-football-
leaks-is-exposing-corruption-in-european-soccer)

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visarga
Can't read the articles on mobile, it hides and asks for login.

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LoveDeathRobots
Dec 2016: "The Man Behind Football Leaks"

[https://www.spiegel.de/international/business/football-
leaks...](https://www.spiegel.de/international/business/football-leaks-a-look-
at-the-man-behind-the-documents-a-1124452.html)

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the_watcher
It sounds like some of his specific crimes could be mitigated as
whistleblowing, but it also sounds like the main thing he's being prosecuted
for is extortion that, if true, is fairly blatant, not whistleblowing, and
_clearly_ a crime.

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sbussard
To prosecute the criminal or the criminal who blew the whistle on the
criminal? Portugal? Comments?

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nathanlied
In my opinion, which is worth nil: Why not both? Clearly (alleged) evidence of
wrongdoing on the part of some organisations was uncovered during this
investigation, and this guy also (allegedly) got this information illegally
and attempted to extort people with it.

Investigate all crimes uncovered, and prosecute everyone to the full extent of
the law.

~~~
braythwayt
I have a problem with prosecuting crimes with evidence that is "fruit of the
poisonous tree."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_poisonous_tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_poisonous_tree)

The incentives become for the state to pony up bitcoin to any hacker that will
obtain evidence against alleged criminals and have them "publish" it. Then the
state is free to use the evidence without any pesky search warrants or
judicial oversight.

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gigatexal
Is there a non paywall link?

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mirimir
Reader view in Firefox bypasses the paywall.

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zxexz
So far this is the only way I’ve been able to find to view the article,
thanks.

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sterileopinions
Honestly what's the point in prosecuting these crimes? Like objectively, in
comparison, with precedence, with philosophical consideration to every
reasonable extent, there is practically no point in expending the amount of
effort that the justice system exerts on these types of crimes.

It almost makes you question why the justice system is motivated or
incentivized to prosecute these types of crimes, to expend more judicial
insight and energy, to display the overt and given power of government against
a crime that has essentially harmed no one to any practical degree.

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chii
When you reveal the dirty laundry of the rich and powerful, the tend to fight
back hard, and attempt to make an example out of you.

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michaelfaraday
If some of the rich and the powerful got that way by having a getting shit
done attitude, then fighting back is just another thing to get done and why
not do it well if you have the money?

