{"id":156097,"date":"2023-04-19T21:21:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T21:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culture.org\/?p=156097"},"modified":"2023-04-19T21:21:25","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T21:21:25","slug":"nintendo-hacker-gary-bowser-released-from-prison-faces-lifelong-financial-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culture.org\/gaming\/nintendo-hacker-gary-bowser-released-from-prison-faces-lifelong-financial-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo Hacker Gary Bowser Released from Prison, Faces Lifelong Financial Battle"},"content":{"rendered":" \r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n
<\/p>\n
Sharing the same last name as the notorious antagonist from the Mario franchise, Gary Bowser, a member of the hacking group Team Xecuter, has been granted early release from prison after serving a portion of his 40-month sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n While Bowser prepares to return to his home in Canada, he still faces a lifetime of financial consequences due to the astronomical damages he owes Nintendo.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2020, Bowser, along with Max Louarn and Yuanning Chen, were indicted for allegedly jailbreaking and selling major game consoles, enabling pirated versions of popular games to be played.<\/span><\/p>\n The hacking group’s actions reportedly cost Nintendo and other console manufacturers around $65 million over several years.<\/span><\/p>\n Bowser, a Canadian national living in the Dominican Republic at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty to selling and creating console chips in 2021 and was sentenced in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n Prosecutors called Bowser a “prominent leader” of the hacking team, while Bowser’s lawyers claimed he was just a small cog in Team Xecuter’s modding scene, earning only $500 to $1,000 a month.<\/span><\/p>\n As reported by TorrentFreak, Bowser’s early release comes more than two years short of his original 40-month sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n In an interview with gaming streamer Nick Moses, Bowser revealed that he had been moved to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center in Washington while awaiting his transport back to Toronto, Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n Bowser’s time in prison included work in the library and late-night shifts on suicide watch for other inmates.<\/span><\/p>\n He is expected to learn how the Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to handle his transport back to Canada soon.<\/span><\/p>\n Bowser, a Canadian national living in the Dominican Republic at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty to selling and creating console chips in 2021 and was sentenced in 2022.<\/p>\n <\/span>\r\n\r\n Once back in Canada, Bowser plans to file for medical coverage and welfare while seeking employment in his area of expertise.<\/span><\/p>\n However, his financial struggles are far from over. Bowser has to pay $4.5 million in restitution to Nintendo of America, as per his original plea agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n A separate civil suit mandates an additional $10 million payment to Nintendo.<\/span><\/p>\n So far, Bowser has only paid $175 to Nintendo from his meager salary working in the prison library.<\/span><\/p>\n He stated that the agreement would take nearly a quarter of his gross monthly income for the rest of his working life.<\/span><\/p>\n Bowser’s case provides a unique perspective on the lengths companies like Nintendo go to protect their intellectual property.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the severity of the punishments handed out, the financial impact on Bowser is so substantial that he will likely never be able to fully repay the damages.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":156098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[407],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Background on Bowser’s Case<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Bowser’s Imminent Return to Canada<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Lifelong Financial Obligations to Nintendo<\/strong><\/h2>\n
A Glimpse into Nintendo’s Pursuit of Justice<\/strong><\/h2>\n