Nintendo Hacker Sentenced to 40 Months in Prison
In September 2020, Gary Bowser — the public face of the video game piracy group Team Xecuter, was arrested overseas and deported from the Dominican Republic for helping to develop and sell devices used to hack video game consoles, including the Switch from Nintendo.
The Canadian national of Santo Domingo has since been in federal custody on the federal felonies of Conspiracy to Circumvent Technological Measures, to Traffic in Circumvention Devices, and Trafficking in Circumvention Devices. The United States government wanted to put Bowser in prison for five years for these crimes.
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Bowser, who has no relation to Nintendo president Doug Bowser, pleaded guilty to these charges in October 2021. Today he was sentenced to 40 months in prison. As part of the plea deal, Bowser has also agreed to pay $4.5 million in restitution to Nintendo. The presiding judge at the sentencing hearing said that Bowser's criminal offenses were serious with «real victims and harm to the community.”
The Department of Justice characterized Bowser as a “prominent leader” who was the „public voice and principal salesperson“ of the hacker group, Team Xecuter. He administered the team's websites, marketed the group’s products, announced new information, and answered customer questions about its products. He also helped to create and support online libraries of pirated video games for its customers. These cybercriminals developed and sold illegal devices that hacked videogame consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition, the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, the Sony PlayStation Classic, and Microsoft Xbox.
In previous court documents, Bowser admitted to being paid
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