Massachusetts Man Charged After Illegally Mining Crypto in School Crawl Space
• A Massachusetts man, Nadeam Nahas, is facing charges after mining cryptocurrency in a school crawl space.
• He reportedly leveraged the school’s electricity in an illegal mining operation and was set to be arraigned today for fraudulent electricity use and vandalism.
• Illegal crypto-mining operations are fairly common as they help offset Bitcoin mining costs.
Massachusetts Man Charged After Mining Crypto
A Massachusetts man, Nadeam Nahas, faces charges after illegally mining cryptocurrency in a school crawl space. The town’s facilities director discovered computers and equipment in the crawl space in December 2021 and reported it to police. IT director later determined that this setup was a crypto-mining network connected to the school’s electrical system.
Illegal Electricity Use & Vandalism
Nahas was identified as the suspect and resigned from his position as assistant facilities director early 2022. He is set to be arraigned today for fraudulent electricity use and vandalism. It is not clear which cryptocurrency he mined but Bitcoin is typically mined both legitimately and illicitly.
Commonality of Illegal Mining Operations
Illegal crypto-mining operations are fairly common due to high electricity costs that offset Bitcoin mining profits. According to Visual Capitalist, it cost $35,404 to mine a single Bitcoin last year — more than the value of Bitcoin at that time. This has resulted in perpetrators illegally connecting their devices to electricity sources on premises such as universities, mental hospitals, government buildings and airports since 2017 according to Russian business portal TA Adviser.
Offset Mining Profits with Cheap Electricity
By relying on venues that already pay for electricity, illegal miners can increase their profits without paying for power bills themselves. This form of theft often includes direct theft of mining equipment or other related crimes as well as stealing electricity from sources like schools or public utilities companies.
Conclusion
This incident serves as a reminder of how pervasive illegal crypto-mining operations have become due to high energy costs associated with these activities resulting in attempts by perpetrators trying to circumvent these costs by using stolen or free power sources such as those found within schools or public utility companies .