Russia and Ukraine Authorities closed down a number of illegal crypto mining facilities allegedly powered by stolen electricity operated by Rosseti in Moscow Oblast, the region adjacent to Russia’s capital.
Tass – Russian News Agency broke the news about the operation this week, quoting Ekaterina Korotkova from the Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor’s Office.
The official explained:
An audit revealed an unauthorized connection to the power grid, theft of electricity and illegal seizure of land for the operation of equipment designed to perform cryptographic calculations related to the mining of digital currencies.
Korotkova highlighted that, the cost of the illegally consumed electricity used to power the mining hardware exceeds 500,000 rubles a day (almost $7,000). The officials filed a criminal case against the the owners of the coin mining firms.
Two other illegal cryptocurrency mining farms were also cracked down in Dagestan, a republic of Russia situated on the Caspian Sea, in the North Caucasus. Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that a large mining firms are operated in a mountainous region. Preliminary data from the investigation suggests that its unknown firm have caused damages of an estimated 1 million rubles (over $13,000).
In Botlikh district of Dagestan, the local police have found that the crypto miners were connected to the power grid without permission.
In January, The law “On Digital Financial Assets,” went into force, to regulate some crypto-related activities in the Russian but cryptocurrency mining, among others, isn’t one of them. The officials in Moscow also planning to recognize the crypto mining as an entrepreneurial activity and tax it accordingly.
In Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced that they discovered an illegal crypto mining facility , three local residents have installed a number of ASICs miner in a hangar they rented in the Buchansky district of the region. They have allegedly used electrical energy worth 3.5 million hryvnia (more than $128,000).
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