A group of Penza miners was accused of stealing electricity – Bits Media

In the Penza region, police detained specialists in electrical networks and computer equipment, who are suspected of mining cryptocurrencies using stolen electricity.

A total of seven detainees. Electricians and computer technicians, they tell the Ministry of Internal Affairs, mined cryptocurrency on the territory, belonging to a farm in the Bessonon district of the region. Even before the arrest, police, with the help of a local energy company, had established, that the mining equipment is connected to the power grid, bypassing metering devices.

“In order to avoid detection of an illegal connection to the power grid, attackers disrupted the operation of distribution equipment at a transformer substation and on a reinforced concrete support of a high-voltage line”, - the police say.

Local power engineers estimated the damage from two months of operation of mining farms at approximately 3 million kWh of electricity worth more than 500,000 rubles.".

Police investigators opened a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation(“Causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust by a group of persons”). The detainees were released home on their own recognizance. The investigation continues.

Recently, a court in the city of Syktyvkar sentenced a miner to two years in prison., accused of illegally connecting to power grids. At the end 2021 year in Smolensk, the rector of the university, who was involved in cryptocurrency mining, was accused of stealing electricity from 4.2 million rubles. Last year, an underground mining farm was discovered in a dugout near Kyiv..