Moscow Region "Electric Networks" sued 99 million rubles for illegal cryptocurrency mining

The Court of Appeal granted the claim of the GUP "Elektroset" against LLC "Innovative digital technologies" (ICT) about illegal mining of cryptocurrencies and ordered ICT to pay 98.8 million rubles.

ICT illegally placed equipment for mining in the queen near Moscow on territory, which before 2017 year belonged to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. IN 2019 the land plot was transferred to the ownership of the development corporation of the Moscow region. During the process of transferring property complex, The object was transferred for storage of the management company Technopark Korolev LLC.

The contract with the “Technopark of Korolev” provided for a ban on the use of property of the territory and its provision to third parties. However, the management company violated the storage agreement and transferred the site for the use of the ICT. According to the case file, A mining equipment was installed on the site, which was connected to networks without an agreement and without payment for electricity.

The fact of illegal consumption of electricity for mining cryptocurrencies was installed after, like with 1 april 2019 years of the electric grid of the technopark was transferred to the State Unitary Enterprise of the Moscow Region "Elektroset". The leadership of the "electric networks" filed a lawsuit against the ICT on unjust enrichment by connecting to the facilities of electric grid economies. In August 2020 year, the court rejected the claim "electric networks", since the organizations failed to prove the fact of the transfer of power receiving devices. ICT lawyers claimed, that the organization was not engaged in illegal mining.

Subsequently, it was discovered, that ICT still related to equipment for the extraction of cryptocurrencies, which was confirmed by the materials of another arbitration case. In November last year, the Arbitration Court of the city of Moscow
Satisfied LLC Bittekh LLC, which required to withdraw from ICT containers for mining, as well as many different Asic Mainers: Antminer S9, Antminer L3, Antminer D3, Antminer T9, Bitfury b8, Ebite e-9 plus, Ebite e-10, ZigZl, Baical, Corps KTP 1250/6 And the power transformer.

The ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal considered this permissible evidence of illegal electricity consumption and satisfied the claim of the "electric network", Picking up from ICT 98.8 million rubles. The amount of the claim was calculated by the "power network" based on the maximum capacity of the cable and the duration of the period of illegal consumption of electricity.

Recall, that a year ago, employees of the Lviv branch of the Ukrainian Railways company were convicted of illegal production of cryptocurrencies using the company's energy system. Earlier, the Kyiv prosecutor's office reported an employee of the SE "Information Judicial Systems", illegally used service equipment for mining cryptocurrencies.