Indonesian Police Bust $1 Million Bitcoin Mining Scam

Indonesian police have shut down ten Bitcoin mining sites for allegedly stealing electricity worth almost $1 million USD. The North Sumatra Police seized 1,134 Bitcoin mining machines and other equipment from these locations.

The Police Chief, Irjen Agung Setya Imam Effendi, accused the operators of illegally manipulating electrical systems to power their extensive mining setup. The estimated loss from this electricity theft across the ten sites is around 14.4 billion Indonesian Rupiahs, equivalent to about $935,666 USD.

In a related incident, Yi Xiao, a former high-ranking Chinese official, received a life sentence for his role in a large-scale Bitcoin mining operation. Xiao, formerly the vice chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference Party Group, was found guilty of abusing his power to facilitate a Bitcoin mining business worth 2.4 billion Chinese yuan (about $329 million).

Operating under Jiumu Group Genesis Technology, his enterprise, which ran from 2017 to 2021, included over 160,000 Bitcoin mining machines, consuming at one point 10% of Fuzhou city’s total electricity.

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