Crypto Mining Farm Uncovered in Russia’s Oldest Prison

Russian law enforcement officials are investigating a crypto mining operation at Butyrka, Russia’s oldest prison. A deputy warden has been accused of thieving electricity to mint digital coins with the enable of unidentified accomplices.

Deputy Warden Suspected of Mining Cryptocurrency in Moscow Jail

A high-ranking representative of the administration of Butyrskaya prison, in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, is underneath investigation for placing up a crypto mining farm. Also acknowledged as Butyrka, this is the oldest prison in Russia, constructed in the distant 1771.

The coin minting hardware was uncovered in the premises of a psychiatric clinic run by the Federal Penitentiary Services at the jail. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is presently checking one particular of the deputy wardens for possible abuse of power, the organization each day Kommersant claimed this 7 days.

The investigators have so far set up that the formal, alongside one another with his accomplices who are however to be determined, put in the mining equipment in November 2021. The rigs had been extracting cryptocurrency right until February of this year.

For the duration of that period, the devices consumed virtually 8,400 kW of electric power paid out by the government at a whole value of a lot more than 62,000 rubles (shut to $1,000). For this, the deputy warden is accused of “actions that plainly go outside of his powers, thereby significantly violating the lawfully guarded passions of the culture or the state.”

Crypto mining with subsidized and often stolen electrical power has turn out to be an interesting resource of more earnings for a lot of Russians. Locations this kind of as Krasnoyarsk Krai and Irkutsk Oblast, which have historically preserved reduced electrical energy prices for the inhabitants and general public establishments, have grow to be hotspots of the unauthorized activity.

Illegal miners have been blamed for frequent breakdowns and blackouts, significantly in residential spots where electrical grids are unable to cope with the too much hundreds. To deal with the phenomenon, Russia’s anti-monopoly company lately proposed the introduction of greater electric power prices for residence crypto miners.

Raids have been carried out from underground mining operations throughout the state, with law enforcement companies lately seizing above 1,500 mining rigs from two illegal cryptocurrency farms in Dagestan. 1 of them was minting cryptocurrency at a pumping station of the Russian republic’s drinking water source utility.

Tags in this tale

Butyrka, Butyrskaya jail, Crypto, crypto farm, crypto miners, crypto mining, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency, unlawful, Miners, mining, Moscow, penitentiary, jail, Russia, russian, warden

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Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Japanese Europe who likes Hitchens’s estimate: “Being a writer is what I am, somewhat than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, worldwide politics and economics are two other resources of inspiration.