Russian law enforcement officers are looking into a crypto mining operation at Butyrka. This is Russia’s oldest prison. Unidentified accomplices were accused of helping a deputy warden steal electricity to create digital coins.
Moscow Prison Deputy Warden Suspected Of Mining Cryptocurrency
Investigations are underway into the possibility of a high-ranking member of the Butyrskaya Prison management, located in central Moscow’s Tverskoy District, for setting up a crypto mining facility. This prison, also known as Butyrka is Russia’s oldest, and was built in 1771.
The hardware used to mint coins was discovered in the premises at the prison’s psychiatric clinic. According to Kommersant, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation currently examines one of the deputy wardens in order to determine whether there has been any abuse of power.
Investigators have established that the official and his accomplices, who are still to be identified, installed the miner’s equipment in November 2021. The rigs had been extracting cryptocurrency up to February 2018.
The machines used almost 8,400 kW of electricity during that time, which was paid for by the government at an estimated cost of over 62,000 rubles (close enough to $1,000). The deputy warden was accused of “acts that clearly exceed his powers and thereby significantly violating either the legal protected interests of society or state.”
Many Russians have discovered that crypto mining using subsidized, and sometimes stolen electricity is a great way to earn additional income. The unauthorized activity has exploded in regions such as Krasnoyarsk Krai or Irkutsk Oblast. These areas have had low electricity rates over the years and have been a hotspot for crypto mining.
Illegal miners are blamed for frequent grid failures and blackouts in residential areas that have electrical grids that cannot handle the high loads. Russia’s antimonopoly agency proposed that home crypto miners be charged higher electricity rates to combat this phenomenon.
Raids were conducted against underground mining operations in the country. Recently law enforcement agencies seized more than 1,500 mining equipments from two illegal cryptocurrency farms located in Dagestan. One of them was mining cryptocurrency at the Russian republic’s water supply facility.
