Indonesian Police Bust Major Bitcoin Mining Operations for $1M Electricity Theft
Summary:
Indonesian police shut down ten Bitcoin mining operations across North Sumatra, accusing organizers of nearly $1 million USD electricity theft. They seized 1,134 Bitcoin mining machines and additional technology. The actions mirror a recent case in China, where a former government official received a life sentence for supplying unauthorized electricity to Bitcoin miners. The total loss from these electricity theft incidents is estimated at roughly 14.4 billion Indonesian Rupiahs, equivalent to $935,666 USD.
Following allegations of electricity theft, the police in Indonesia have shut down ten Bitcoin mining enterprises. Local reports reveal that these operations, costing close to a million dollars in stolen electricity, were led by those behind the orchestration of a North Sumatra-hosted Bitcoin mining effort. Spread across ten sites, this operation involved the authorities seizing 1,134 Bitcoin mining machines and additional technology including 11 meters of electrical cables.
Irjen Agung Setya Imam Effendi, the North Sumatra Police Chief, claimed that the operations’ instigators manipulated electrical networks to fuel the hefty amount of Bitcoin mining machinery. He explained that the typical electricity distribution process, normally measured by the meter, had been altered. Instead, the electricity was pulled from the pole directly and redirected to power the mining machines.
An estimate of the total loss caused by these ten confirmed incidents of electricity theft amounts to approximately 14.4 billion Indonesian Rupiahs (IDR). This equates to roughly $935,666 in USD.
In correlation, a former Chinese government official was recently given a life-long sentence for his role in unauthorized electricity supply to Bitcoin miners. Yi Xiao, the ex-Vice Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference Party Group, was handed his life sentence by the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court as a result of power abuse linked to a Bitcoin mining venture.
Reports indicate that Xiao ran a Bitcoin mining operation worth 2.4 billion Chinese Yuan ($329 million), under the commercial label of Jiumu Group Genesis Technology, from 2017 until 2021. Xiao, with fellow corporate heads, collected over 160,000 Bitcoin miners, consuming at one point, 10% of the total electrical supply of Fuzhou city.
Published At
12/30/2023 8:47:04 AM
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