What happened to the hacker behind the massive GTA 6 leak?
The Grand Theft Auto VI leak from September 2022 remains one of the most notorious moments in modern gaming history. Long before Rockstar Games officially revealed GTA 6, nearly 90 videos from an early development build appeared online, giving the world an unfinished look at what would become one of the most anticipated games ever.
The leaked footage, totaling around an hour of gameplay, showed early missions, dialogue, character interactions, and the return of Vice City. It also effectively confirmed two playable protagonists, Lucia and Jason, well before Rockstar was ready to share those details publicly.
The person identified as being behind the breach was Arion Kurtaj, a British teenager who was 17 at the time. He was linked to Lapsus$, an international hacking group connected to several major cyberattacks. During court proceedings, Rockstar said the attack caused around $5 million in damages and forced the company to spend thousands of staff hours investigating the breach and repairing affected internal systems.
One of the most surprising details of the GTA 6 hack was how it was reportedly carried out. Kurtaj had already been arrested in connection with earlier cyberattacks and was out on bail. As part of those conditions, he was placed in a hotel and did not have access to a standard computer.
Despite that, he allegedly used a smartphone, an Amazon Fire TV Stick, and the hotel room television to access Rockstar’s internal communications. From there, the early GTA 6 material was leaked online, instantly spreading across gaming communities and social media.
Kurtaj later appeared before a UK court in 2023, but the case did not proceed like a typical criminal trial. Medical experts found that he was unfit to stand trial due to his severe autism. Instead of a prison sentence at that stage, the court ordered that he be detained indefinitely in a secure psychiatric hospital.
For some time, it was believed that Kurtaj remained in that facility. However, new information later clarified that this was no longer the case.
According to reporting from BBC journalist Joe Tidy, Arion Kurtaj has left the high-security psychiatric hospital. The update could not be shared publicly earlier because of court reporting restrictions. Those restrictions were lifted by a judge at the UK High Court on July 14, 2026, allowing the information to be confirmed.
However, reports claiming that Kurtaj has been released are not accurate. He has not returned to public life. Instead, he has been transferred from the psychiatric hospital to a regular prison.
The latest information indicates that Kurtaj has now been considered fit to stand trial and is being held in custody while awaiting criminal proceedings. That means the legal consequences of the GTA 6 leak are still unfolding years after the original breach.
The case continues to draw attention because of the scale of the leak, the unusual way the hack was allegedly carried out, and the impact it had on Rockstar Games during development of Grand Theft Auto VI. With GTA 6 still one of the most talked-about upcoming video games, many fans are watching closely to see how the legal case develops and whether Kurtaj will remain in custody when the game finally arrives.
