Gary Bowser, a 52-year-old Canadian, was sentenced to three years in prison by a court in Seattle, Washington. Mr. Bowser was accused of being the main manager of the Team Xecuter group, which for several years produced tools to run pirated games on game consoles. Between 2013 and 2020, the group had marketed tools of this type for consoles from several manufacturers, including those from Nintendo.
Mr. Bowser had pleaded guilty last year and agreed to pay 4.5 million dollars (3.95 million euros) in damages to Nintendo. He was considered the main person in charge of Team Xecuter by the American justice, because he administered various sites of sale of the group’s products.
In his defence, he claimed during his trial that he had been a mere executor, who would have been duped by the one he presents as the real administrator of the group, a 49-year-old Frenchman residing in Avignon, Max Louarn. The trial of the latter, arrested in Tanzania at the request of the American authorities before being repatriated to France, has been postponed several times and is scheduled for May 30. A third man, a Chinese national living in Shanghai, was also charged during the US proceedings.
Mr. Bowser told the hearing that he earned regarding $320,000 for his work with Team Xecuter over seven years. The prosecutor had asked for a heavier penalty, sixty months in prison.