Sentenced Player Receives Punishment for Swatting Ubisoft Montreal’s Offices Over ‘Rainbow Six Siege’ Dispute

Yanni Ouahioune, a dissatisfied player of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, has been given a three-year community service sentence after making a false emergency call to Ubisoft’s Montreal office. The Montreal Gazette reported that the 22-year-old received this sentence in Paris on Monday for reporting a fictitious hostage situation to authorities in November 2020.

According to police, Ouahioune called the scam because he was angry that he had been banned multiple times from Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. In response to the bogus call, a heavily armed police team surrounded the building. Officials secured the headquarters – and closed several nearby streets – before confirming there was no active threat. Ouahioune claimed to have called from his parents’ house using Russian servers to disguise his identity (unsuccessfully). After receiving the indictment, La Presse reported (via Polygon) that Ouahioune asked Ubisoft to unblock his account. “Can you please say I’m kindly asking the Ubisoft team to ‘unblock’ my account,” Ouahioune said. “I have invested over $1,500 in cosmetic improvements to my profile.”

The verdict also includes Ouahioune’s alleged role in a DDoS attack against a French government agency and threatening Minecraft developers. In addition to community services, the convicted fraudster is said to be “reimbursed for victims, receive treatment for a mental health problem, and either work or train.”

Magali Valence, director of external communications at Ubisoft Montreal, told The Montreal Gazette in an email that she recognizes the court’s decision. “In this lawsuit, we were committed to representing the interests of our employees who were affected by this false hostage-taking alert at our Montreal studio. It was important to us to condemn this violent and intolerable incident. Out of respect for our employees who were affected by this event, we will not comment further.”