SUMMARY
- Arion Kurtaj is a teenage hacker from the hacker group Lapsus$.
- He was the one responsible for the massive GTA 6 footage leak in 2022.
Ahead of the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer being officially launched by Rockstar Games earlier in December 2023, the community saw the internet flooded with leaks about GTA 6. There were countless leaks over the internet, most of them attributed to a teenage hacker who leaked the details.
As many as 90 developmental videos of GTA 6 were leaked on the internet showing the game in action. These included confirmation about the series returning to Vice City and the presence of a female protagonist. The hacking and leaks were reportedly done by a hacking group named ‘Lapsus$.’
A UK court had convicted a member of the group, a teenager named Arion Kurtaj. He had earlier revealed how he surprisingly hacked the systems. Recently, the accused appeared in court today and he was found guilty of the crime.
GTA 6 hacker punished
The 18-year-old leaker Arion Kurtaj was found guilty by a UK jury back in August however, the sentencing had been delayed. According to BBC, Kurtaj appeared for the court’s session via a video call from Feltham Youth Prison, where he is currently placed. The report mentions that he “sat alone in a black Airmax t-shirt listening” for the court’s session.
I’m at the long-delayed sentencing of GTA hacker Arion Kurtaj and his 17 year old accomplice who joined him on a hacking spree of tech giants last year for the Lapsus gang. For the first time during the court case Kurtaj is appearing via video link. https://t.co/jjSLiIDQz3
— Joe Tidy (@joetidy) December 8, 2023
As per the BBC reporter who was present in court during the session reported that the hacker has been sentenced with “an indefinite hospital order.” It means that Arion Kurtaj will stay in a protected hospital for life “unless doctors deem him no longer a danger.”
This verdict comes more than a year after Kurtaj hacked into Rockstar Games’ internal Slack communications system. He subsequently released 90 videos of gameplay from GTA 6. Rockstar reportedly told the court that the break-in cost them $5 million in recovery along with thousands of hours of staff time.
Arion, along with his 17-year-old friend had before Rockstar managed to successfully hack Nvidia, Uber, BT, and Revolut over the past couple of years. Despite being on bail during these times, the two continued to create menace.
Why is GTA 6 hacker sentenced to hospital?
Unlike other criminals being sentenced to jail, the reason why Arion was sentenced in a hospital is that the guilty still “remains a high risk to the public through his skills and motivation”. Reportedly he told the psychiatrists that he would not stop.
Additionally, he has also been violent several times when still in police custody. He had injured other inmates and caused damage to property during his custody. Another reason was that Arion had “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated.”
A court session in early December revealed how Kurtaj would continue to commit crimes again once he was set free. According to The Daily Mail, Dr Claudia Camden-Smith, the psychiatrist who evaluated Kurtaj, was asked if the hacker was ‘highly motivated to return to offending?’.
To this, Dr Camden-Smith replied saying, “That is what he told me the last time I saw him.” His friend and co-hacker was sentenced to an 18-month-long Youth Rehabilitation Order which included intense supervision and a ban on using VPNs.
The psychiatrists deemed Arion unfit and hence he did not stand trial. Judge Patricia Lee also postponed the sentencing today, detaining him under the Mental Health Act as she was of the opinion he was suffering from a mental illness.