Ukrainian authorities have seized the illegal cryptomining farm and recovered 3,800 PlayStation 4 gaming consoles and GPUs.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has shut down an illegal cryptomining farm, which was operating at an extensive scale. According to the official report, the miners were performing their malicious activities from a utility room at a local electricity provider located in Vinnytsia, southwest of Kyiv.
SEE: Authorities arrest culprits for crypto mining at Ukraine nuclear plant
The authorities have exposed the illegal selection of massive volumes of electricity in Vinnytsia. They had illegally plugged it into the power grid, which could have caused a complete blackout in entire blocks of the city.
It is assumed that the electricity provider employees are involved in this illegal mining spree. However, authorities haven’t conclusively determined who’s behind this malicious campaign.
Around 5,000 Hardware Units Confiscated
The investigation was carried out by the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and supervised by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Reportedly, the cryptomining farms operated on the territory of JSC Vinnytsiaoblenergo.
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Officials claim that the miners were using an abandoned warehouse in an industrial area that formerly belonged to this company to run Ukraine’s largest underground cryptocurrency mining farm.
When the authorities raided the illegal cryptomining farm, the officials seized nearly 5,000 hardware units, including 500 GPUs, 3,800 PlayStation 4 gaming consoles, 50 CPUs, mobile phones, flash drives, notepads, and documents.
The confiscated hardware was allegedly used for facilitating cryptomining, and the miners stole the electricity, which was to be used for the city.
Stolen electricity amounted to roughly $259,300 monthly
As per the current estimates, the stolen electricity amounted from between $186,200 to $259,300 monthly. Officials state that they raided the farm as well as the offenders’ residences, and some of the hardware was recovered from there.
JSC Vinnytsiaoblenergo’s Official Statement
JSC Vinnytsiaoblenergo has denied any involvement in this malicious activity and published a statement on their website that read:
“We officially declare that our company has nothing to do with any illegal activities. In premises owned by our company, equipment intended for mining cryptocurrencies has never worked.”
The company claims that there is no evidence of electricity theft either.
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