A Bitcoin mining machine was placed in a rented house and stole 1.81 million kWh of electricity in less than a year

Following the prosecution initiated by the Hanzhong City Hantai District Procuratorate in Shaanxi Province, the Hantai District Court recently made a first-instance judgment on a series of electricity theft cases, sentencing the defendants Zhu and Wang and seven others to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from ten years to two years and seven months and fines; and sentencing the defendant Jiang to five years in prison and a fine for the crime of theft.

From December 2018 to June 2019, Zhu, Wang and four others invested in purchasing bitcoin mining machines to mine bitcoins and rented a factory building of a certain company to place the bitcoin mining machines. In order to reduce costs, they stripped the insulation layer of the A-phase and C-phase current wires at the junction box of the special power meter in the factory, short-circuited them with silver metal sheets, and stole electricity. At the same time, they hired the defendant Zheng to guard the site. When the power department inspected, they turned off the mining machine and unplugged the metal sheet to evade inspection.

From June to September 2019, Zhu, Wang and others went to Kunming, Yunnan to continue mining Bitcoin. In October, Zhu and Wang returned to Hanzhong. Zhu hired Wang A, who then contacted Cao and Wang B, illegally replaced the transformer on their own, installed circuit breakers and sockets for the Bitcoin mining machine, laid lines, and stole electricity resources. Zhu hired Chen to perform daily maintenance and repairs on the mining machine. On November 21, the power supply bureau staff discovered the incident during an inspection and called the police. The public security authorities seized 725 Bitcoin mining machines and related items on the spot. It was determined that they had stolen 1.816 million kWh of electricity, with a total value of more than 1.1977 million yuan.

From March 2015 to March 2020, in order to obtain drug money, Jiang dismantled the electricity meter and short-circuited the live wire inlet and outlet of the meter to steal electricity from 59 private households in Hantai District and his own home, charging modification fees ranging from 200 to 1,000 yuan. The total value of the stolen electricity was 308,100 yuan. (Justice News)