Canadian hacker Gary Bowser has pleaded guilty to several counts and has been fined $ 4.5 million.
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Team Xecuter circumvented the security measures of Nintendo consoles with its modchips.
© Nintendo
This week, the Canadian hacker Gary Bowser has been charged on several counts
found guilty
and thus admits to having circumvented technical copy protection measures on Nintendo consoles and to having sold devices to circumvent them. For this, Bowser now has to pay a fine of 4.5 million US dollars. The 51-year-old also faces up to ten years imprisonment.
Bowser and the hacker group Team Xecuter have been targeting Nintendo for several years. The group is said to have developed and sold modchips for consoles that enable the playing of pirated games. Bowser has admitted having worked with Team Xecuter since 2013. He had “knowingly and deliberately participated in a cybercriminal company that hacked leading game consoles”. The hacker’s hardware includes Stargate, Trueblue Mini, Classic2Magic, SX and Gateway 3DS.
Bowser admitted to having been involved in the development, manufacture, marketing, and sales of this hardware. Team Xecuter earned at least $ 10 million from the sale. Bowser earned around 320,000 US dollars a year from Team Xecuter.
Last year the US government brought charges against Bowser and other members of the hacking group. Bowser was arrested in the Dominican Republic and deported to the United States. His colleague Max Louarn was caught in Canada. He is still waiting to be handed over. The third defendant, Yuanning Chen, is still at large.