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Despite the prison sentence and another arrest, the 50-year-old Frenchman is enjoying life.
As SecurityLab reported in February of this year, a certain Gary Bowser received three years in prison for participating in the hacker group Team Xecutor, which sold hacked Nintendo consoles on which you can play pirated games. However, Bowser's partner, group leader Max Louarn, is still at large. Despite problems with the law and even an arrest in Tanzania, the 50-year-old Frenchman is enjoying life with his girlfriend, a former model from Russia, in the picturesque city of Avignon in the south of France.
Luarn became interested in hacking in the 1980s. At first, he hacked his home Commodore 64 computer for fun, but the harmless hobby eventually grew into a good source of income.
“I didn’t intend to be an engineer with a salary of 5 thousand euros a month when, at the age of 18, I realized that hacking was not only fun, but also brought in a lot of money. Why not steal from companies that earn billions?” the hacker admitted to Le Monde in a recent interview.
MAXiMiLiEN (Luarna's hacker alias from the 1990s) sold hacked games, key generators and software until 1993, when he was arrested on charges of piracy... by Nintendo! The hacker flew to Spain, but law enforcement lured him to the United States by sending a fake invitation to a birthday party in his friend's name. As soon as Luarn stepped off the plane, he was immediately arrested.
The Frenchman admitted his guilt and served five years in an American prison. In 2005, Sony sued the hacker, accusing him of piracy and demanding damages of $5 million.
According to Luarn, Nintendo considers him a sworn enemy.
“They hate me. I bet they have a photo of me hanging in their office in Tokyo,” the hacker laughs.
However, he himself does not consider himself a villain, but rather a rebel.
“We have always stood for freedom. That’s our way of thinking: do whatever we want with the machines and make sure everyone has access to them,” Luarn said.
It is noteworthy that the hacker himself denies his connection with Team Xecutor, although as part of an agreement to cooperate with the investigation, Gary Bowser named him as his accomplice. Now the Frenchman is being hunted not only by Nintendo, but also by the US Department of Justice.
As mentioned, Luarn was arrested in Tanzania in 2020, but was released after a court ruled his arrest illegal. The hacker managed to escape from the FBI on a private jet and fly to France.
Although Luarn lives a relatively free life at home, his overseas bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets are frozen, and the legal grip is tightening.
Be that as it may, the hacker does not intend to give up. According to him, US laws protect the interests of large corporations and are “ready to destroy competitors by covering simple commercial disputes with criminal law.”
“Serving my sentence now would be more difficult because I have to take care of my father. I have a 16-year-old daughter and a second child on the way,” notes Luarn.
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Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser, sentenced to three years, is being released early. However, it will most likely be paying damages to the Japanese manufacturer throughout its life.
As a reminder, Bowser has fallen into disfavor with Nintendo for selling hacking devices for consoles (including Switch) and running pirated copies of games since 2013 as part of the hacker group Team Xecuter.
In February 2022, he was sentenced to 40 months in prison after pleading guilty. Bowser served his sentence in an American prison, but was released for good behavior. He is now awaiting deportation to Canada, his homeland. He needs to pay the manufacturer $10 million.
Bowser will donate 25-30% of his monthly salary to Nintendo once he finds a stable job until he makes amends. So far, he has paid the $175 in several $25 payments, based on the salary he received in prison.
It's unlikely that 51-year-old Gary Bowser will ever be able to pay off his fines in full, but Nintendo's main goal is to prevent more hackers from emerging. The company said it would spend $65 million to strengthen Switch's anti-piracy measures to circumvent Team-Xecuter's tactics.
Bowser still has six months before he begins making further payments to Nintendo to pay off the remaining balance of about $10 million.
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The hacker who put Nintendo on a lifetime counter calls himself a warning to other hackers.
Gary Bowser, a convicted Nintendo hacker, believes that he is a walking warning to all other hackers who have not yet been caught.
“If you're out there doing anything else, you know it's going to be hard when you get caught,” says Bowser, who was released from prison last year.
In 2013, Bowser was a member of the Team-Xecuter group, which sold special devices that allowed illegal copies of games to run on Switch and 3DS. He was caught in 2020 and sentenced to 40 months. He spent 14 months in prison and was released with an obligation to pay Nintendo a portion of his earnings. Bowser owes the company $14.5 million. As he himself believes, he will be forced to pay the debt throughout his life.
“Of course I will give something away. But I’ll give a little, that’s for sure,” Bowser says. He also believes that it could have been much worse - his house could have been taken away from him, but he managed to keep his home.
As SecurityLab reported in February of this year, a certain Gary Bowser received three years in prison for participating in the hacker group Team Xecutor, which sold hacked Nintendo consoles on which you can play pirated games. However, Bowser's partner, group leader Max Louarn, is still at large. Despite problems with the law and even an arrest in Tanzania, the 50-year-old Frenchman is enjoying life with his girlfriend, a former model from Russia, in the picturesque city of Avignon in the south of France.
Luarn became interested in hacking in the 1980s. At first, he hacked his home Commodore 64 computer for fun, but the harmless hobby eventually grew into a good source of income.
“I didn’t intend to be an engineer with a salary of 5 thousand euros a month when, at the age of 18, I realized that hacking was not only fun, but also brought in a lot of money. Why not steal from companies that earn billions?” the hacker admitted to Le Monde in a recent interview.
MAXiMiLiEN (Luarna's hacker alias from the 1990s) sold hacked games, key generators and software until 1993, when he was arrested on charges of piracy... by Nintendo! The hacker flew to Spain, but law enforcement lured him to the United States by sending a fake invitation to a birthday party in his friend's name. As soon as Luarn stepped off the plane, he was immediately arrested.
The Frenchman admitted his guilt and served five years in an American prison. In 2005, Sony sued the hacker, accusing him of piracy and demanding damages of $5 million.
According to Luarn, Nintendo considers him a sworn enemy.
“They hate me. I bet they have a photo of me hanging in their office in Tokyo,” the hacker laughs.
However, he himself does not consider himself a villain, but rather a rebel.
“We have always stood for freedom. That’s our way of thinking: do whatever we want with the machines and make sure everyone has access to them,” Luarn said.
It is noteworthy that the hacker himself denies his connection with Team Xecutor, although as part of an agreement to cooperate with the investigation, Gary Bowser named him as his accomplice. Now the Frenchman is being hunted not only by Nintendo, but also by the US Department of Justice.
As mentioned, Luarn was arrested in Tanzania in 2020, but was released after a court ruled his arrest illegal. The hacker managed to escape from the FBI on a private jet and fly to France.
Although Luarn lives a relatively free life at home, his overseas bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets are frozen, and the legal grip is tightening.
Be that as it may, the hacker does not intend to give up. According to him, US laws protect the interests of large corporations and are “ready to destroy competitors by covering simple commercial disputes with criminal law.”
“Serving my sentence now would be more difficult because I have to take care of my father. I have a 16-year-old daughter and a second child on the way,” notes Luarn.
-------------
Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser, sentenced to three years, is being released early. However, it will most likely be paying damages to the Japanese manufacturer throughout its life.
As a reminder, Bowser has fallen into disfavor with Nintendo for selling hacking devices for consoles (including Switch) and running pirated copies of games since 2013 as part of the hacker group Team Xecuter.
In February 2022, he was sentenced to 40 months in prison after pleading guilty. Bowser served his sentence in an American prison, but was released for good behavior. He is now awaiting deportation to Canada, his homeland. He needs to pay the manufacturer $10 million.
Bowser will donate 25-30% of his monthly salary to Nintendo once he finds a stable job until he makes amends. So far, he has paid the $175 in several $25 payments, based on the salary he received in prison.
It's unlikely that 51-year-old Gary Bowser will ever be able to pay off his fines in full, but Nintendo's main goal is to prevent more hackers from emerging. The company said it would spend $65 million to strengthen Switch's anti-piracy measures to circumvent Team-Xecuter's tactics.
Bowser still has six months before he begins making further payments to Nintendo to pay off the remaining balance of about $10 million.
--------------------------
The hacker who put Nintendo on a lifetime counter calls himself a warning to other hackers.
Gary Bowser, a convicted Nintendo hacker, believes that he is a walking warning to all other hackers who have not yet been caught.
“If you're out there doing anything else, you know it's going to be hard when you get caught,” says Bowser, who was released from prison last year.
In 2013, Bowser was a member of the Team-Xecuter group, which sold special devices that allowed illegal copies of games to run on Switch and 3DS. He was caught in 2020 and sentenced to 40 months. He spent 14 months in prison and was released with an obligation to pay Nintendo a portion of his earnings. Bowser owes the company $14.5 million. As he himself believes, he will be forced to pay the debt throughout his life.
“Of course I will give something away. But I’ll give a little, that’s for sure,” Bowser says. He also believes that it could have been much worse - his house could have been taken away from him, but he managed to keep his home.
