Few people have heard of Gary Bowser, however, he has been the victim of a sentence so strong that it would take him the rest of his life to pay.
Mr. Bowser, who lived in a small apartment in the Dominican Republic, has not had an easy life. After suffering from domestic abuse at the hands of his partner, losing the other in a murder and having grown up without the accompaniment of his mother since he was 15 years old; Gary Bowser has had several problems with the law and drinking. In 2004, Gary was charged with fraud involving less than $5,000 and in 2018 he contracted lymphedema, causing swelling in his left leg. However, this was not even the beginning of his biggest problem.
In 2001, a company known as Team Xecutor enters the piracy market. At the time, making way for pirated games for the Xbox and eventually creating its own device to enable hacking of Nintendo’s latest video game console, the Nintendo Switch. When Bowser joined the company, he was the only one working under his real name, being used as the face of the company, which eventually led to his conviction being far greater than that of others involved.
While his partner, Max Louarn, enjoyed luxurious trips and stays in five-star hotels, Bowser earned between 500 and 1,000 dollars a month, leading a humble and simple life; but this was not enough to save him from meeting the sword of anti-piracy from the United States government and Nintendo.
In 2020, the United States Department of Justice charged Gary Bowser and Max Louarn with running, recruiting investors, and exploiting promoters at Xecutor, which was described as “one of the most prolific video game hacking groups.” Along with them, Yuanning Chen, who was in charge of supervising the management of a manufacturing and distribution company called ChinaDistrib and working with hackers who had found exploits in game consoles, was also charged.
Gary Bowser was sentenced to more than three years in prison last week, in addition to having to pay $4.5 million in restitution; amount that he was added to the 10 million dollars that he already had to pay according to the conclusion of a civil lawsuit in December. Both sentences have left Bowser with a total of $14.5 million that he owes to Nintendo.
At the time of this writing, Bowser’s attorneys have indicated that neither Louarn nor Chen have been charged or sentenced in the case.
Source: Vice.com
