[1] On 11 December 2001 a major law enforcement raid - known as Operation Buccaneer - forced it to close under criminal charges of infringement.

DrinkOrDie was founded in 1993 in Moscow by a Russian with the handle "deviator" aka "Jimmy Jamez" and a friend who went by the code name "CyberAngel.

Cudney quickly rose up the ranks of DOD council where he spent many years working undercover for US Customs, logging conversations in chat rooms and channels visited on IRC.

[5] Co-leader Hew Raymond Griffiths, known by his handle "Bandido", was a British national and long-term Australian resident from Bateau Bay on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

[8] As a result of Operation Buccaneer, the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit also arrested 6 members living in Britain.

Four of them ran a 9-month trial starting in September 2004 at the Central Criminal Court - Old Bailey and were convicted for Conspiracy to Defraud Software Companies and Institutions.

US prosecutors allege that DrinkorDie released more than 275 application and utility programs from November 2000 to December 2001, worth more than US$1 million at the time.