When a group of friends discovered that one of the most popular video games ever made could be manipulated, the big money-making began soon after.

In 2013, 23-year-old programmer Anthony Clark and three friends discovered a way to win large amounts of gambling money playing the EA Sports video game FIFA.

16 million dollars raised

Clark, who has been described as the mastermind of the group, had managed through an intervention to fool the EA Sports servers into thinking he had finished a game. They exploited this loophole because: When a game was finished, the respective user received a coin of the game money.

The group sold the coins to users of the game worldwide and earned a total of 16 million dollars.

But the high earnings caught the attention of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Anthony Clark and his buddies did not know that the agency had established a connection with the game manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA).

My goal was not to put them in jail. I wanted to make it clear: Yo, guys, this is unlawful
– Brian Poe –
District Attorney

Prosecutor Brian Poe said the large sums of money taken in by the young men set the investigation in motion. After all, he said, $16 million was involved, as well as luxury Lamborghini and Mercedes vehicles. “My aim was not to put them in jail. I wanted to make it clear: Yo, guys, this is unlawful!” said Poe.

The pals confessed

Anthony Clark’s three friends confessed and forfeited the money taken to avoid jail time.

Clark and his legal counsel were convinced that he had done nothing wrong. They decided to face the trial, accepting that a conviction could involve several years in prison.

The trial did not go as Clark and his legal counsel had hoped. He was convicted of fraud.

Death shortly after birthday

While Anthony Clark waited for his sentence to be determined, he remained at large. On his birthday, he went out with friends. His aunt reported that the friends had got drunk, after all it had been his last birthday in freedom for the time being. Two days later, Clark died in his sleep. The official cause of death was an accidental drug overdose.

Clark had always maintained that he had not committed a crime and was determined not to admit guilt for anything he believed he had not done. Even years after his death, his legal counsel supported this view. His lawyer said, “At the end of the day, it’s a numerical value in a calculator. It’s no different than the jersey colour of one of the football players. It doesn’t actually exist.”

True crime goes online: Every week in hacker:HUNTER Next Level we look at real stories from the games industry and find out if hacking can be a force for good.