Who is Arion Kurtaj? Rockstar Games hacker reportedly smuggled a phone into jail and claims GTA 6 leaks are 'definitely somewhere'

While GTA 6 is on the horizon, it's only fitting that a resurfaced viral story is dominating the headlines, and the man of the hour is Arion Kurtaj.

At just 17 years old in 2022, while on police bail in a Travelodge hotel room, he allegedly infiltrated Rockstar Games using minimal equipment, which shook up the entire gaming community.


Many questions are looming. How did he do it? Who even is he? Or why is he getting viral now? Let's dive deep into the fiasco.


In September 2022, the seventeen-year-old allegedly hacked into Rockstar Games' internal systems and gained access to the company's Slack channels. He reportedly demanded the gaming company contact him on Telegram within 24 hours, threatening to leak the GTA 6 source code if the company failed to respond.

Soon after, around 90 clips of early GTA 6 development footage, totaling more than an hour of gameplay, surfaced online, turning the incident into one of the biggest leaks in gaming history, while also posting under the username "TeaPotUberHacker" on a gaming forum.

Rockstar Games refused to pay any ransom and instead publicly acknowledged the cyberattack. The leak reportedly forced the studio to confirm GTA 6's development earlier than planned, costing the company an estimated $5 million in recovery efforts and resulting in thousands of staff hours being spent on damage control.



While on police bail at a Travelodge hotel near Oxford (as hinted above), the boy was under strict restrictions after officers had confiscated his laptop and limited his internet access following earlier arrests.

Despite those conditions, he allegedly bought a new smartphone, along with a keyboard, a mouse, and an Amazon Fire TV Stick. He reportedly connected the Fire Stick to the hotel room television, using it to create a Linux-like environment with remote access capabilities while turning the TV into a larger screen for his operations.

According to evidence presented in court, Kurtaj allegedly relied on social engineering techniques, including MFA fatigue attacks and access to cloud-based services, to gain entry into Rockstar Games' network despite having only limited hardware. Police later searched his hotel room, and upon finding the connected devices, they rearrested him, bringing one of gaming's most shocking cybercrime cases to the forefront.


People in the gaming community are still shook by the sheer genius behind it. One user on X(formerly Twitter) wrote, “Dude hacked GTA6 using Amazon Fire Stick… Madlad!”

Another mentioned, “A teenager leaks game footage and ends up with an indefinite sentence. Let that sink in.” A fan commented, “The most legendary story in gaming history… using only an Amazon Fire TV Stick, a smartphone, and a hotel TV.”


Another posted, “He turned basic social engineering into a weapon against trillion dollar companies.”


In August 2023, he was convicted on multiple charges, including fraud, hacking, and blackmail, in connection with the Lapsus$ cybercrime group. On December 21, 2023, at the age of 18, Southwark Crown Court handed him an indefinite hospital order under the Mental Health Act rather than a conventional prison sentence. The court ruled that, because of his severe autism, he was unfit to stand a full criminal trial in the usual way.


While we already got a proper glimpse of the individual, let's now dig into his personal details. Arion Kurtaj, born in 2005 in Oxford, England, is a British hacker who has been identified as a key member of the Lapsus$ cybercrime group(as mentioned above) alongside another alleged member known as "Cr1p."

Diagnosed with severe autism, Kurtaj attended a special needs school and reportedly showed exceptional computer skills from a young age. Investigators allege that he became involved in cybercrime as early as 11.


The individual is back in the headlines in June 2026 after reports alleged that he smuggled a smartphone into his secure hospital facility using a drone.


From custody, he reportedly took to Snapchat and expressed surprise that the full GTA 6 source code had still not leaked publicly, claiming it was "definitely somewhere" out there.