Don’t ever let anyone tell you it’s just a game and exploits aren’t a big deal: A group of FIFA players are standing trial on charges of felony wire fraud for thinking just that.
One of four defendants in the FBI’s federal case is Anthony Clark, whose trial began in Texas earlier this week. Clark and his alleged co-conspirators are charged with creating a tool to essentially hack the game, spoof matches, and allow them sit back while they collected sweet, sweet FIFA coins, which were then exchanged on various legal and illegal marketplaces for cash, resulting in millions of dollars in profit — and I do mean millions, which these chuckleheads stashed in legit bank accounts and used to purchase muscle cars and houses.
“The defendant, Anthony Clark, and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud EA by obtaining ‘FIFA coins’ by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses and representations,” reads the original indictment. “[He] transmitted and caused to be transmitted, by means of wire and radio communications in interstate and/or foreign commerce, certain writings, signs, signals and sounds, including causing an ‘application’ to be executed on EA’ s servers from various locations throughout the United States, all contrary to the provisions of 18 u.s.c. § 1343.”
One alleged co-conspirator has already pleaded guilty to his charges. And you thought sports video games were boring.
