Ukraine Unveils Largest Illegal Mining Farm in Country to Date – Mining Bitcoin News
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has located a huge minting machine in Vinnytsia, which has been illegally connected to the power grid. Law enforcement officials claim it is the largest underground crypto mining farm they have found to date.
Ukraine Seizes Thousands of Video Game Consoles to Mine Crypto Using Stolen Electricity
The main Ukrainian law enforcement agency, SBU, announced this week that it had uncovered a large-scale electricity theft in the city of Vinnytsia in western central Ukraine. The stolen energy was used to mint digital coins in what officials dubbed the country’s largest illegal crypto farm uncovered to date.
The mining facility was built by residents of Vinnytsia and the capital, Kiev, in a former JSC Vinnytsiaoblenerho warehouse, the agency said in a press release posted on its website. They were able to hide the theft from the distribution company with electricity meters that did not show the true energy consumption.
During the searches of the crypto farm and the homes of its operators, law enforcement agencies seized almost 5,000 units of mining hardware, including 3,800 game consoles, over 500 graphics cards and 50 processors. Agents seized power consumption records as well as notebooks, phones and flash drives, the announcement said.
The operation was carried out by the SGE Department of Counterintelligence for the Protection of the State’s Economic Interests together with the SGE Regional Office in Vinnytsia and the Main Investigation Department of the National Police under the supervision of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Illegal mining farm in Vinnytsia steals up to $ 250,000 in electricity
Preliminary estimates by the Ukrainian authorities suggest that the illegal mining operation is responsible for electricity losses on the order of 5 to 7 million hryvnia, or between about $ 183,000 and $ 256,000 at the time of writing. The excessive consumption could have led to power surges and outages in the surrounding areas, officials added.
The SGE has initiated criminal proceedings for the unauthorized use of electricity. Investigators are now working to identify all the people behind the illegal crypto mining activities and are trying to check whether JSC Vinnytsiaoblenerho employees are also involved.
The news from Vinnytsia comes after Ukrainian law enforcement authorities shut down an illegal mining farm in Chernihiv Oblast last week. The plant was operated with stolen electricity from the local power grid. During a raid on rented warehouses, authorities seized 150 mining rigs that had burned energy for $ 110,000. In early June, the SBU discovered a crypto farm with 350 mining rigs that were illegally connected to the power grid in Dnepropetrovsk Oblast and had consumed electricity worth over $ 70,000.
Do you think Ukraine is taking coordinated action against illegal mining of cryptocurrencies? Do share your thoughts on the matter in the comments below.
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