From Football Leaks to Luanda Leaks – How a hacker ‘fell into’ the Dos Santos files

A Portuguese hacker had the high stakes world of football in his scope, but while hacking the files of a law firm in Lisbon, he came across something far juicier; the dealings of Isabel dos Santos of Angola. It was something the spikey-haired hacker, Rui Pinto revealed once the authorities caught up with him; perhaps as a 'get out of jail card' from the crimes he has been accused of by the football fraternity. And again, it is a law firm that proved to be a treasure trove of information. In the case of the Panama Papers, the documents were stolen from Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. In an unexpected twist in the Dos Santos leak, a lawyer from the Portuguese law firm PLMJ, where the Dos Santos papers were stolen from, has been found dead. It is an intriguing story with similarities to the Gupta state capture saga where Dubai serves as the final bolthole for the people who plunder the coffers of African countries and where it is more likely that the hackers will find themselves behind bars than the people who plunged their countries into poverty. – Linda van Tilburg

By Thulasizwe Sithole

A Portuguese hacker, Rui Pinto founded the website Football Leaks, in which Pinto revealed the finances of world soccer and in the process found an even bigger treasure trove "by accident" – the documents revealing the business dealings of Africa's richest woman, Isabel dos Santos. As reported in the New York Times, Rui Pinto spent his life 'plundering internal documents and secret agreements' and he unearthed the practices of some of the illegal dealings of  the football world, its players, lawyers and teams. The information that he gained from hacking; he published on his website and attracted the wrath of soccer teams and agents who tried to find out who was behind the leaks and to have him arrested. The authorities eventually caught up with him, but before he was detained and extradited to Portugal, Pinto revealed to his French lawyer, William Bourdon in Budapest that he had found information on how the daughter of Angola's former President, Isabel dos Santos managed to become Africa's richest woman with a $2bn fortune.

The secrets that Pinto revealed have led to the investigation of Dos Santos who used to head her country's state oil company Sonangol and other institutions "to bankroll a sprawling business empire that included stakes in the impoverished country's diamond exports, its dominant mobile phone company, two of its banks and its biggest cement maker." Angolan officials have in the meantime frozen some of her assets and she is likely to be charged with embezzlement while the transfer of tens of millions of dollars are being investigated.

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