Last year in the Dominican Republic, 51-year-old Canadian and modder Gary “GaryOPA” Bowser was arrested (and soon extracted to the US) and has now pleaded guilty.
He was a member of the Team-Xecuter group, which offered people hardware and software solutions that allowed them to install and play unofficial and pirated copies of games on various consoles (including the popular Nintendo Switch).Bowser worked on the SX OS line for modding Switch devices, as well as developing other tools that allowed users to play pirated ROMs. Bowser pleaded guilty to two of eleven counts of trafficking of devices for bypassing security and conspiracy for this activity. Together, the two charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. In exchange for an admission of guilt, the prosecutor’s office agreed to drop the remaining nine charges.
According to the agreement signed by Bowser, a copy of which was at the disposal of the editorial staff of TorrentFreak, the modder admits that between June 2013 and up to his arrest last year, he “knowingly and intentionally participated in cybercriminal activities to hack leading game consoles, within the framework of which were produced and sold various bypassing devices that allowed customers [modders] to play pirated versions of copyrighted video games.”
Also in the statement, Bazuser admits that the modders sought to “hide their illegal activities behind a perceived desire to support homebrew enthusiasts who were eager to develop their own games.” The group also supported the movement for the right to repair, but their products also allowed users to play pirated games.
In response to the efforts of modders, Nintendo updated the Switch’s hardware to thwart hacks, but Team-Xecute created special devices that could be soldered to the Switch’s internal board, court documents say.
In addition, it is reported that the devices of modders “quietly and without authorization gained access to the servers of Nintendo and the ecosystem of online games”, using legitimate Nintendo servers for their own purposes.
Bowser himself estimates that Team-Xecuter has generated “tens of millions of dollars in revenue” from its hardware and software sales since 2013. The most profitable was exactly SX OS, which allowed using a Nintendo Switch with custom firmware and playing pirated games. Bowser, however, only made $ 320,000 personally by receiving direct payments from Team-Xecuter and a share of advertising sales on various sites that he controlled.
Let me remind you that we talked about the fact that 33 BEC Black Ax fraudsters that stole more than $ 17 million arrested in the US.
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