During an interview posted April 14, notorious Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser, 53, said he expected to be released from prison within a week to a week and a half.
He told podcast host Nick Moses that he is looking forward to having a diet that doesn’t consist of prison food. Bowser said he was speaking from the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bowser (yes, he has the same name as the Nintendo character) “was part of one of the world’s most notorious videogame piracy groups, Team Xecuter.”
Along with fellow Xecuter leader Max Louran, Bowser was arrested in 2020. An indictment alleged that they “were leaders of a criminal enterprise that developed and sold illegal devices that hacked popular videogame consoles so they could be used to play unauthorized, or pirated, copies of videogames.”
Xecuter targeted consoles such as the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition as well as the Sony PlayStation Classic and the Microsoft Xbox, said the DOJ. Yuanning Chen was also identified as one of the group’s leaders.
“These defendants were allegedly leaders of a notorious international criminal group that reaped illegal profits for years by pirating video game technology of U.S. companies,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said at the time.
Court documents indicated that the Team Xecuter “criminal enterprise” included over a dozen members who exploited vulnerabilities in video game consoles and more. These documents also alleged that it had devices called the Gateway 3DS, the Stargate, the TrueBlue Mini, the Classic2Magic, and the SX line of devices that included the SX OS, the SX Pro, the SX Lite, and the SX Core and that it created online libraries of pirated games.
“Imagine if something you invented was stolen from you and then marketed and sold to customers around the world. That is exactly what Team Xecutor was doing,” said Raymond Duda, FBI Special Agent in Charge Seattle.
Louran and Bowser were charged with 11 felony counts, including: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and to traffic in circumvention devices, trafficking in circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Last February, that Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison for two federal felonies, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. The announcement said Bowser pleaded guilty in October 2021 to “Conspiracy to Circumvent Technological Measures and to Traffic in Circumvention Devices, and Trafficking in Circumvention Devices.”
According to Ars Technica, news of Bowser’s release from prison was first reported by TorrentFreak. Per that outlet, Bowser was incarcerated at Federal Detention Center SeaTac in Seattle.
Bowser said in the interview that he worked a lot while incarcerated at SeaTac, sometimes in the library and sometimes helping other prisoners on suicide watch. He told Moses that he was moved to the Northwest Detention Center on March 28. Ars Technica said he served 16 months in pretrial custody.
“A few weeks ago his attorney put in a request for an early release, citing the time credits earned by his client to date. That request was denied as moot earlier this month, as the Bureau of Prisons had pushed Bowser’s release date forward,” said Torrent Freak.
At the Northwest Detention Center, he said he’s more free to wander around, make coffee and chat with other prisoners. Even when he’s out, Bowser said he’ll have to make payments towards $14.5 million in damages. He expects to be taken to Toronto, Canada, when he’s released.
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