Key takeaways:
- Ten Bitcoin mining operations are said to have been shut down by Indonesian police, who accused the operators of stealing electricity worth close to USD 1 million.
- It was said that an estimated 14.4 billion Indonesian Rupiahs (IDR) have been lost as a result of these ten cases of electricity theft.
Ten Bitcoin mining operations are said to have been shut down by Indonesian police, who accused the operators of stealing electricity worth close to USD 1 million.
In response to a multi-site Bitcoin mining operation spread across ten locations in Indonesia, the North Sumatra Police Force reportedly intervened and seized 1,134 Bitcoin mining devices, 11 meters of electrical wire, and other computer equipment.
Irjen Agung Setya Imam Effendi, the Chief of Police in North Sumatra, claimed that the operators had interfered with electrical connections in order to power a large number of Bitcoin mining devices.
“As we can see here, this is the PLN box. However, the electricity flow inside it is not the proper flow that should enter the box and be measured by the meter. Instead, what they took is the upper part, where electricity is taken directly from the pole and channeled inside.”
Additionally, it was said that an estimated 14.4 billion Indonesian Rupiahs (IDR), or roughly USD 935,666, have been lost as a result of these ten cases of electricity theft.
This occurs subsequent to a life sentence handed out to a Chinese government official for providing Bitcoin miners with electrical access.
A life sentence for power abuse in a Bitcoin mining business was apparently handed down by the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court to Yi Xiao, the former deputy chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference Party Group.
Jiumu Group Genesis Technology was the corporate name of the Bitcoin mining company that Xiao allegedly ran from 2017 to 2021, earning 2.4 billion Chinese yuan ($329 million).
In collaboration with other business executives, Xiao gathered over 160,000 Bitcoin miners and, at one point, 10% of Fuzhou’s total electricity usage.
