The United States Department of Justice has shared some news regarding Team-Xecuter, which doesn't appear to be a good sign for the company. Gary Bowser, known on GBAtemp as garyopa, Max Louarn, and Yuanning Chen have all been arrested in Seattle, Washington. The US Government classifies these men as "leaders of one of the world's most notorious videogame piracy groups", and will be facing a federal indictment charge, for the selling of illegal hardware that facilitates piracy.

“These defendants lined their pockets by stealing and selling the work of other video-game developers – even going so far as to make customers pay a licensing fee to play stolen games,” said U.S. Attorney Brian Moran for the Western District of Washington. “This conduct doesn’t just harm billion dollar companies, it hijacks the hard work of individuals working to advance in the video-game industry.”

The FBI has also been involved, with each defendant to be charged under 11 felony counts, ranging from wire fraud, trafficking circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. One of the defendants, Louarn, has not yet been extradited, though Bowser has, where he was seen in the court hearing that took place today.

In September 2020, Louarn and Bowser were arrested abroad in connection with the charges in this case. The United States will seek Louarn’s extradition to stand trial in the United States. Bowser was arrested and deported from the Dominican Republic, and appeared today in federal court, in New Jersey.

Each defendant is 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.

Source

 

[vvaitforme]

ı hope sx os updates based from china Or sx os done.

 

[CompSciOrBust]

Y'all are happy about this but TX are the only ones willing to make mod chips for the new Switches. ReSwitched already said they want nothing to do with it and idk who else would. Besides what other group has a rich module to fund hardware research? Say what you want about their practices but if you care about the hackability of future consoles you should be saddened by this.

ı hope sx os updates based from china Or sx os done.

They're not. Don't know the SXOS dev very well but I spoke to him enough on the TX private chat to know he's not in China.

Edit: Although I'm also pretty sure he's not one of the three who were arrested either. We all knew who Gary is, it is a open secret that Max was involved in funding TX after Paul sold his shares, and the other guy is in China.

 

[AngryCinnabon]

I just hope i can use atmosphere on my core later down the line, i don't need SXOS, just a working CFW solution on the core itself.

 

[SANIC]

NO CP FOUND THIS TIME, HUH?

That's The Cruelest thing I've seen that people are expecting for TX to be accused of.

The boat was clearly sinking from the getgo. The only thing I can say if it truly goes down, is good riddance. Paid piracy really grinds my gears.

 

[Deleted User]

If Atmosphere didn't exist, the same people cheering for Team Xecuter's arrest would actually care.

 

[weatMod]

Garyopa has been on this site a long time and has another site. Guess he won't be anymore.

I didn't really think that Americans were running the thing. They were stupid to reverse engineer Nintendos console in America. It was evitable they would eventually be arrested.

i alwasy thought Gary was in the Dominican Republic

 

[DbGt]

So people are scum if they celebrate criminals getting arrested? Lmao what kinda logic is that. It's like you hold piracy into such high standards. I pirate everything and I think this is hilarious. Never used anything from them, thank god.

Maybe "hypocrites" is the better word. Pirates celebrating that other pirates got arrested?? And not only regular pirates, but one of the only 2 teams working on switch, who made huge and unique advancements?? WTF? Whats to celebrate??

This affects everyone, TX was/is a very important team in the switch scene, this is a huge blow

 

[Flying Scotsman]

If Atmosphere didn't exist, the same people cheering for Team Xecuter's arrest would actually care.

If Atmosphere didn't exist, SX would still be being developed (if at all) as SX uses Atmosphere at its core.

It's going to be interesting going forward as devs might be more wary of Ninty and their pack of overpaid lawyers (i.e they may turn their gaze to NSP installers next or may attempt to subpoena Google for users downloading NSPs from GDrive).

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

It sucks that I'll have to downgrade to atmosphere now.

 

[AngryCinnabon]

It sucks that I'll have to downgrade to atmosphere now.

I wouldn't really consider it a downgrade imo

 

[kerelenko]

Hopeful Atmosphere comes to Switch Lite and Mariko.

 

[rmorris003]

If you search Gary's name he had been arrested in 2008 for selling counterfeit dvds in Toronto and lots of mod chip install ads come up too. His company is also listed as being located in Toronto Canada.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

I wouldn't really consider it a downgrade imo

Going from being able to install .nsp, mount .xci and use HDD to only being able to install is a significant downgrade for me.

 

[MasterJ360]

This can be viewed as good news to Atmosphere fans, but it can be a threat to the hacking community if Nintendo wants to do more witch hunting. TX was their main target, but they really don't like any forms of hacking piracy or not.

 

[AngryCinnabon]

Going from being able to install .nsp, mount .xci and use HDD to only being able to install is a significant downgrade for me.

Nsps are the same damn thing at the end of the day to me, and HDD support is supported on atmosphere iirc

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

This can be viewed as good news to Atmosphere fans, but it can be a threat to the hacking community if Nintendo wants to do more witch hunting. TX was their main target, but they really don't like any forms of hacking piracy or not.

Why is it good news for Atmosphere users? Why do they give a fuck?

 

[MasterJ360]

Why is it good news for Atmosphere users? Why do they give a fuck?

They have been shit posting sxos's demise since day 1 of its release in 2018

 

[AngryCinnabon]

Why is it good news for Atmosphere users? Why do they give a fuck?

SXOS used much of atmosphere's own code, which was very controversial.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

SXOS used much of atmosphere's own code, which was very controversial.

How does this affect atmosphere users?

 

[Ygolonac]

This is going to be such a hassle, now I have to learn how atmosphere works and deal with its jank like XCI being trash and organize all my roms and saves and shit. Oh well, It has a good run, I got the SXOS when it was the only option for piracy.