Team Xecuter: Gary ‘GaryOPA’ Bowser hoping to get an early release from prison

Former member GaryOPA, of infamous piracy group Team Xecuter, was sentenced to a 40 month prison sentence following the lawsuit initiated by Nintendo. He is planned to be released in July this year, but has petitioned to be released earlier, in March. In an exclusive phone interview with Youtuber Nick Moses yesterday (video below), Gary described his current situation in prison and his concerns for life after jail.

Team Xecuter lawsuit – a short summary

Team Xecuter was a prominent hacking group selling piracy devices for multiple consoles. They’ve been known, among other things, for their Nintendo Switch piracy modchips, SX Core and SX lite, but before that had sold other piracy devices, sometimes under different names, such as Gateway 3DS.

Xecuter were advertising their products in particular through popular scene website MaxConsole (which was owned and maintained by GaryOPA) under the appearance of product reviews and homebrew support.

A list of products created and sold by Team-Xecuter, as claimed by the US courts and “confirmed” by Gary Bowser in his plea agreement

Two of their main members, Max Louarn and Gary Bowser, were arrested in 2020. A third member, Yuanning Chen, is still at large.

Louarn himself has avoided being extradited to the US, and is still pending trial in France, as far as we know (last reliable info is from June last year, see below). Gary Bowser, on the other hand, was sentenced in the US to 40 months in prison about a year ago (he had already been doing prison time pending the judgement, which is why he is scheduled for release later this year) and owes Nintendo somewhere between 4.5 and 14.5 million dollars.

Since then of course, the “SX” Switch hacking modchip production has stopped, except for third party clones that have been difficult to find, and expensive.

Gary OPA and Max Louarn’s current situation

In his interview with Nick Moses, GaryOPA has shared concerns about what happens next for him once out of jail, in particular having no family remaining in Canada, where he will most likely be sent. The hacker also has to get his leg treated, due to a health issue.

“That’s the problem; being Canadian and because we’re close here to the Canadian border and Seattle, they’ll just […] drive me to the Canadian border and kick my *** off the bus and say ‘walk home’. That’s the problem because walking home, that’s like 3,000 miles to the nearest person that might even be able to look after me in Canada” 

“I have to get my leg worked on too because of the swelling in my left leg. While I’m in Canada I’m going to try to get that done […]. That’s going to be one of my major priorities.”

“My real support system is back in the Dominican Republic. Eventually, I have to get back there”

In the meantime, it appears Max Louarn has been roaming free. In 2022, he refused to provide his computer’s decryption keys to authorities, and has been fined 8’000 euros (approx. $8’500) in June last year for refusing to comply. Notably, neither him nor his attorney showed up in June for that sentence.

Nick Moses has painted a stark contrast of the lives of the two former members of Team Xecuter, with GaryOPA penniless and filled with concerns on what life will bring him next next, while according to one of his youtube videos, Louarn allegedly enjoys nice vacations and the lifestyle of an Instagram star.

Nick Moses showcases glamour instragram pictures from Max Louarn’s account

Moses also describes some short email exchanges he’s had with Max. In particular, Louarn stated that GaryOPA was not part of Team Xecuter, but still took the fall for them making him a de-facto member, which Moses says is honorable (and is also how he interprets Louarn’s emails). It appears Louarn is keeping with his line of thoughts that the real evil here is international justice bending over to the will of a billion-dollar company. Which, well…he’s not entirely wrong in my opinion.

Conclusion…?

The Team Xecuter saga has been going on for a long time, and Max Louarn’s issues with international justice for even longer. So far it seems the hacker has been doing just fine, while others have received significant sentences, and it’s possible he’ll get away with a slap on the wrist from his France trial. Nintendo got what they were looking for after all: a culprit (GaryOPA) and a strong message sent to groups who would try to make money with piracy, so maybe this is the end of the saga right here.

References:

• https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-hacker-gary-bowser-seeks-early-prison-release-230206/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwypX4wOD6U
• https://www.laprovence.com/article/faits-divers-justice/6818592/vaucluse-8-000-euros-damende-pour-lex-hacker.html
• https://www.buzzsprout.com/739244/10826643