Operations against irregular Bitcoin miners continue. Most recently, the Indonesian police announced the shutdown of ten Bitcoin mining operations accused of using about 1 million dollars worth of stolen electricity.
Total Loss Approximately 1 Million Dollars
According to local media, the North Sumatra Police Force acted against a multi-site Bitcoin mining operation, seizing 1,134 Bitcoin mining devices, 11 meters of electric cable, and various computer equipment.
North Sumatra Police Chief Irjen Agung Setya Imam Efendi emphasized that the teams conducting the operation found that electrical circuits had been tampered with to power numerous Bitcoin mining devices, stating “As you can see, this is a PLN box and the flow of electricity inside this box has not been set up to enter and be measured by the meter as it should be. Instead, electricity has been directly channeled into the box from the pole.”
Authorities estimate the total loss from these 10 illegal electricity points to be 14.4 billion Indonesian rupiah, which is approximately 935,666 dollars.
Chinese Government Official Sentenced to Life in Prison
The Indonesian police’s operation followed the life imprisonment of a Chinese government official who facilitated Bitcoin miners’ access to electricity. It is known that Yi Xiao, the former vice-chairman of the Jiangxi Province Political Consultative Conference Party Group, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court for abusing his authority in a Bitcoin mining venture.
It is alleged that Xiao enabled the continuation of a Bitcoin mining operation under the corporate name Jiumu Group Genesis Technology from 2017 to 2021, worth 2.4 billion Chinese yuan (329 million dollars).
Furthermore, it is claimed that Xiao, along with other company executives, controlled more than 160,000 Bitcoin mining devices and at one point managed 10% of the entire electricity consumption of the city of Fuzhou.
