The person at the center of the biggest leak in gaming history is about to stand trial and the timing is almost too perfect. Arion Kurtaj, the hacker tied to the September 2022 Grand Theft Auto VI leak, is due in court on November 9, ten days before the game he exposed reaches players.
The trial date surfaced through his defense team. Barristers Trevor Archer and Andrew Herd, instructed by Niamh Matthews-Murphy, confirmed they are defending Kurtaj in what they describe as one of the UK's most high-profile cybercrime prosecutions. He is set to stand trial at Woolwich Crown Court for offences he is alleged to have committed as a child.
The GTA 6 leak case, from leak to trial
Date | What happened |
|---|---|
September 2022 | More than 90 GTA 6 development videos leak online after a Rockstar hack |
2023 | A jury finds Kurtaj carried out the acts, but he is ruled unfit to stand trial and detained in a secure hospital |
2026 | Assessed fit to plead, he is moved from hospital to prison |
November 9, 2026 | His trial begins at Woolwich Crown Court |
November 19, 2026 | GTA 6 launches, 10 days later |
Kurtaj has not been convicted, the November trial is where the case will be heard.
It's easy to forget how big of a deal this leak was when it first came out now that we're in the thick of GTA 6 marketing. In 2022, no one had known anything about GTA 6 outside of Rockstar Games confirming that it was in development. Then, on a random day on September 2022, more than 90 GTA 6 development videos spilled online in a breach so large that Rockstar confirmed it in an official statement, a rare move for a company that says very little. Kurtaj, alleged to be a leading member of the Lapsus$ hacking group, was named as the person behind it, with the same group tied to breaches at BT, Nvidia, Revolut and Uber.
The leak was a real disaster for Rockstar at the time, dumping unfinished footage of its most secret project in front of the world years before release. Kurtaj even claimed the source code was still out there afterward, though no playable build ever surfaced.
In 2023, a jury found Kurtaj had carried out the acts behind the Rockstar hack, but because he was ruled unfit to stand trial, he was detained in a secure hospital rather than convicted. After treatment, he has now been assessed as fit to plead and, per reports, moved from hospital to prison ahead of the trial. The November 9 date is the result.
Despite the evidence and having spent the past few years inside a secure hospital, Kurtaj has not been convicted of these offences. The upcoming trial is where the case against him will be heard now that he is deemed fit to take part and the charges relate to conduct from when he was a minor, which is why the reporting around the case has stayed careful.
Now, as GTA 6 counts down to its November 19 launch, the court case over that leak falls in the same window as the game itself.
For Rockstar, it is a strange full-circle moment. The leak that once felt like a catastrophe is now a footnote to a launch breaking records before it is even out. The trial over it will play out in the same two weeks the world gets its hands on GTA 6 for real.