The hacker behind the explosive Football Leaks scandal has threatened to release a raft of Manchester City emails and documents – and is confident they will prove that the club deliberately cheated Financial Fair Play Rules.
The 35-year-old has been under witness protection since 2020. He received a suspended four-year sentence from a Portuguese court last year, avoiding imprisonment despite being convicted of attempted extortion and unauthorized data access.
It is believed that they retained most of the documents concerning City’s financial operations, but they previously disclosed significant details about the club’s sponsorship revenue and specifics regarding former manager Roberto Mancini’s contract.
City strongly deny any misconduct but are anticipated to undergo a hearing regarding their 115 Premier League charges for alleged financial improprieties this autumn.
The club is still charged with hiding payments through third parties by presenting them as sponsorship income, which constitutes a blatant breach of FFP.
Speaking via video link from his safehouse, Pinto informed the OffShore-Alert Marbella Conference: “The Man City releases showed amounts of money being paid into by the club that were not mentioned to the football authorities.
‘These documents are from part of the Premier League investigation into City. I have now handed five hard drives to French and German authorities with millions of documents, including more on City and I have described what is on each.
‘I am confident they will find criminal relevancy.’
A legal representative for Pinto added: ‘We have been approached by investigators to share information regarding Manchester City that has not been released before.
‘We haven’t released the information yet but we have a massive file of Manchester City-related documents that has yet to be released.
‘The files will be published at some point, we cannot say when but we will do it.’
Manchester City, however, successfully appealed their suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being exonerated of ‘disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions’. They had been accused of violating FFP regulations between 2012 and 2016.
Manchester City said they were ‘surprised’ by the pending FFP investigation.
Launching a staunch defence, they added: ‘The club welcomes the review of this matter by an independent Commission, to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.
‘As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.’