First page design
Site Theme
When Gary Bowser, 54, pleaded guilty to helping Team Xecuter with its line of piracy-enabled console accessories, he learned he would likely never pay back the $14. 5 million he owed Nintendo in civil and criminal penalties. However, in a new interview with The Guardian, Bowser claims he started earning $25 monthly bills for those large fines, even though he was serving a similar criminal sentence.
From that money, Bowser says he “was paying Nintendo $25 a month” while behind bars. That lines up roughly with a discussion Bowser had with the Nick Moses podcast last year, where he said he had already paid $175 to Nintendo during his detention.
According to The Guardian, Nintendo will likely continue to take 20 to 30 percent of Bowser’s gross income (after paying for “necessities such as rent”) for the rest of his life.
While people associated with piracy often face fines rather than prison, Nintendo lawyers were upfront that they pushed for jail time for Bowser to “send a message that there are consequences for participating in a sustained effort to undermine the video game industry.” That seems to have been effective, at least as far as Bowser’s concerned; he told The Guardian that “the sentence was like a message to other people that [are] still out there, that if they get caught … [they’ll] serve hard time.”
Bowser arrested in the Dominican Republic in 2020. Team member Xecuter and French citizen Max “MAXiMiLiEN” Louarn, who charged and was arrested in Tanzania at the time of Bowser’s arrest, is still living in France as of mid-2022 and has yet to be extradited to the Dominican Republic. Yuanning Chen, a Chinese national and co-defendant, remains at large.
“If Mr. Louarn comes before me for sentencing, it is very possible that he will serve a double-digit sentence of years on a criminal conviction for his role and involvement, and the same with the other individual [Chen],” U. S. District Judge Robert Lasnik said. said in Bowser’s ruling.
During his time in prison, Bowser told The Guardian that he suffered a COVID crisis for two weeks severe enough that “a priest would come once a day to read him a prayer. “An elephantiasis attack also prevented him from putting a shoe on his left foot and required the use of a wheelchair, he said.
Now that he’s free, Bowser says he relies on friends and a GoFundMe page to pay for his contract and must have it while he’s looking for work. That search may be hampered by your criminal history and the terms of the plea agreement that saves you. prevent you from running around with trendy play equipment.
Despite this, Bowser told The Guardian that his current scenario is still preferable to an era of homelessness he experienced when he was in his twenties. And while hacking consoles might be an option for Bowser, he’d still be “tinkering with outdated calculators from Texas Instruments. “” to pass the time.
Join the Ars Orbital Transmission email to receive weekly updates in your inbox. Sign up →