From behind prison bars, the hacker reveals how he managed to pay Nintendo $25 each month.
When Gary Bowser, 54, pleaded guilty to his role in helping Team Xecuter create console accessories that enabled piracy, he realized he would likely never pay back the $14.5 million he owed Nintendo in civil and criminal penalties. However, in a new interview with The Guardian, Bowser says he has started making monthly payments of $25 even while in prison.
See also: Spec Ops: The Line – Permanently removed from Steam
Last year, Bowser was released after serving 14 months of a 40-month sentence (plus 16 months of pre-trial detention), which he served in various prisons. During part of that time, Bowser told The Guardian that he was paid $1 an hour for four-hour shifts, mentoring other inmates who were being monitored for suicidal tendencies.
Of that money, the hacker says he was “paying Nintendo $25 a month” during his incarceration. This roughly matches a conversation he had on Nick Moses’ podcast last year, where he had already paid Nintendo $175 during his incarceration.
See also: Okta: Layoffs are coming, affecting 400 employees
According to The Guardian, Nintendo will likely continue to take 20 to 30% of Bowser's total income (after paying "necessary expenses" like rent) for the rest of his life.
‘Was he the victim?"
While people associated with piracy typically face fines rather than prison time, Nintendo’s lawyers emphasized that they pushed for the jail time for the hacker to “send a message that there are consequences for participating in an ongoing effort to undermine the video game industry.” This appears to have been effective, at least as far as Bowser is concerned, who told The Guardian that “The sentence was like a message to others who are still out there, that if they get caught… they will face harsh punishment.” However, Bowser also maintains that he had no direct involvement in the code or construction of Team Xecuter’s products, and only worked on secondary matters such as product testing, promotion, and coding the website. Speaking to Ars in 2020, Aurora, editor of Wololo, a hacking news website, described Bowser as “a kind of PR guy” for Team Xecuter. However, Bowsersaid that accepting a plea deal on just two charges saved him the time and money that would have been required to go to trial on all 14 charges filed against him.
Bowser was arrested in the Dominican Republic in 2020. Max “MAXiMiLiEN” Louarn, a fellow Team Xecuter member and French national, who was charged and detained in Tanzania around the same time as Bowser’s arrest, was still living in France as of mid-2022 and has not yet been extradited to the United States. Chinese national and co-defendant Yuanning Chen remains at large.
See also: TikTok: Toxic "Legging Legs" trend banned
“If Mr. Louarn comes before me for his sentence, it is very likely that he will be sentenced to double‑digit years of imprisonment for his role and participation, as is the other person [Chen],” said American Federal Judge Robert Lasnik during Bowser's trial.
Return to society
During his time in prison, Bowser told The Guardian that he suffered from a severe bout of COVID that lasted two weeks, so severe that “a priest would come in once a day to read him a prayer.” A bout of elephantiasis also left him unable to wear a shoe on his left foot and required the use of a wheelchair, he said.
Read also: PayPal: Plans thousands of layoffs for 2024
Now that he's free, Bowser says he's relying on friends and a GoFundMe to pay rent and necessary expenses while he looks for work. That search could be somewhat limited by his criminal record and the terms of his agreement that prevent him from working on any modern gaming hardware.
Despite this, Bowser told The Guardian that his current situation is still preferable to a period of homelessness he experienced during his 20s. And while hacking consoles may be impossible for Bowser, it seems he still “teases” old Texas Instruments to pass the time.
Source of information: arstechnica.com
