An enemy of Nintendo by the name of Bowser has just been freed from prison and no, it’s not who you think.
Canadian console hacker Gary Bowser (there’s no relation to Doug Bowser, the president of Nintendo of America) has been released from federal prison after spending close to two years incarcerated for fraud.
In an interview with YouTuber Nick Moses, Bowser himself confirmed that he has been released to a Washington detention centre in March. He’s now awaiting extradition to Canada.
Bowser was originally arrested and charged with fraud in 2020 for taking part in Team Xecuter, a hacking group that would make and sell mod chips for consoles such as the Nintendo Switch, Sony’s PlayStation Classic, Nintendo’s 3DS and more. This would allow customers of Team Xecuter to play pirated games on the console.
Due to the now-infamous hacker living in the Dominican Republic at the time of his arrest, he was extradited to the United States in order to serve his 40-month sentence. Bowser says that he was released early due to good behaviour.
That said, good behaviour doesn’t erase his charges. He owes a whopping $10 million in restitution to Nintendo as part of a piracy lawsuit filed by the company. On top of this, the Nintendo modder will be forced to pay an additional $4.5 million to the video game giant as ruled by a separate federal court order.
According to Bowser, he’s managed to pay off $175 worth in $25 dollar increments thus far.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Source: @NickMoses05 Via: The Verge
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