Every now and again the space-based MMO EVE comes up in conversation or you’ll read about it in the gaming news, but it is not publicized to an enormous extent. However, the shenanigans that an EVE User by the name of “Bad Bobby” has pulled off will definitely catch your attention, whether or not you’ve played the game.

“Bad Bobby” spent several years developing an enormous investment company within EVE called Titans4U, using a board of trustees to give the illusion that it was a safe environment where stealing was impossible - seeing as it was lead and orchestrated by several people.

However, the thieving mastermind concocted a hostile take-over and the payout was worth over 850 Billion ISK (the in-game currency of EVE) - equivalent to $45,000. In order to pull it of, he spent years deceiving these people and playing it safe to gain their trust, and then brought up issuing more shares through pretending to bring in more trustees (which he then owned) and after they had done that, he gained over 50% of the company’s shares. He gave the other 5 trustees the boot and made off with the biggest load of in-game currency that anyone has probably ever seen.

I’ve played EVE and it is enormously hard. Ridiculously hard. I played for a solid month, trying to develop my character and make money doing some mining and selling the ore and such on the markets, and I made (with mission income and everything) about ten million ISK in the month. Now, if my average is 10 million per month, it would take me more than 70 lifetimes to make $850 billion.

This man, while certainly a jerk, is a criminal mastermind. I congratulate him even though I’m not okay with a person taking advantage of their fellow man like that. EVE is not for the weak of heart. It is a cold, dark void where your mental brawn is truly tested and if you aren’t a cutthroat or a street (or space) smart person, you just might end up like me -having spent all ten million ISK on new ships and having to quit.

As of now, “Bad Bobby” is only going to be able to sit on his in-game fortune, seeing as there is no way to convert ISK into USD quite yet. However, he can convert the ISK into PAX which he can use to buy game time (over 200 years worth considering the amount of ISK he now has). So, at least he has a long time to wait, and hope that he can convert this game cash into real green.

So, here’s to you “Bad Bobby,” I hope nobody knows where you live. Cheers.

Source: Massively