Bowser released from federal prison but has to pay Nintendo for the rest of his working life
Canadian Gary Bowser was indicted in 2020 before being jailed last year for his involvement with a Nintendo hacking group called Team-Xecuter(opens in new tab). The charges related to his role as a salesperson and promoter of Team-Xecuter's hardware and hacking tools, and Bowser pleaded guilty to his involvement. The US government requested a sentence of five years but, in probably the only bit of leniency Bowser received, he was jailed for 40 months in February 2022(opens in new tab), and has now been granted early release 12 months later. He is currently in a US processing centre, and should be returned to Toronto in the next week.
But things are not going to end there. A large part of the case against Team-Xecutor was the financial damage it caused Nintendo, and the court slapped Bowser with an astronomical restitution amount totalling $14.5 million.
Bowser recently granted a video interview to journalist Nick Moses (thanks Torrentfreak(opens in new tab)), though unfortunately the fact he's still in a federal facility means the audio has some terrible echo. With regards to the $14.5 million in damages, $10 million of that is a consent judgement awarded to Nintendo, and this debt has priority, so Bowser's been paying $25 a month from his prison wages, totalling $175 so far.
«The agreement with them is that the maximum they can take is 25 to 30 percent of your gross monthly income,» said Bowser. «And I have up to six months [after release] before I have to start making payments.»
Gary Bowser is in his fifties and, if you'll excuse the beermat maths, would have to earn a gross amount of around $40 million to ever be clear of this debt. Financially speaking, this is a life sentence.
Obviously one can't condone
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