Ukraine discovers country’s largest illegal mining farm to date

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) located a huge coin minting facility illegally connected to the Vinnytsia power grid. Law enforcement officials say this is the largest underground crypto mining farm they have found so far.

Ukraine seizes thousands of crypto-mining video game consoles with stolen electricity

Ukraine’s main law enforcement authority, the SBU, announced this week that it has denounced a large-scale theft of electricity in the city of Vinnytsia, in west-central Ukraine. The stolen power was used to strike digital coins in what officials have described as the country’s largest illegal crypto farm discovered to date.

The mining installation was installed by residents of Vinnytsia and the capital Kiev in a former warehouse of JSC Vinnytsiaoblenerho, the agency said in a statement posted on its website. They managed to cover up the theft from the distribution company using electric meters that did not indicate the true energy consumption.

During searches of the cryptography farm and the residences of its operators, the police seized nearly 5,000 units of mining equipment, including 3,800 game consoles, more than 500 video cards and 50 processors. Officers confiscated documents on electricity consumption as well as laptops, phones and USB drives, the announcement said.

The operation was carried out by the SBU Department for the Protection from Counterintelligence of State Economic Interests in collaboration with the SBU regional office in Vinnytsia and the main investigative department of the National Police, under the supervision of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

Illegal mining farm in Vinnytsia steals up to $ 250,000 worth of electricity

Preliminary estimates released by Ukrainian authorities suggest that illegal mining is responsible for electricity losses in the range of 5-7 million hryvnia, or between approximately $ 183,000 and $ 256,000, at the time of writing. . The excessive consumption could have caused surges and blackouts in surrounding areas, officials added.

The SBU has instituted criminal proceedings for unauthorized use of electricity. Investigators are now working to identify all those behind the illegal crypto-mining activity and are trying to verify whether JSC Vinnytsiaoblenerho employees are also involved.

The news from Vinnytsia comes after Ukrainian law enforcement closed last week of an illegal mining farm in Chernihiv oblast. The facility was powered by stolen electricity from the local power grid. In a raid on rented warehouses, authorities seized 150 mining rigs that had burned energy for $ 110,000. In early June, the SBU discovered a crypto farm with 350 mining rigs that were illegally connected to the power grid in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and had used more than $ 70,000 of electricity.

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