Crazy 85-day theft of electricity for bitcoin mining amounted to more than 900,000 yuan

Bitcoin has been very popular in the past two years. Many people have heard of it but do not know much about it. Since the birth of Bitcoin, the controversy surrounding it has never stopped. In addition to purchasing equipment, the biggest expense of Bitcoin mining is the high daily electricity bill. In order to illegally obtain greater profits, some criminals are willing to take risks.

In Xidianzi Town, Suizhong County, two outsiders were hired by others to rent a house and use 408 Bitcoin "mining machines" to earn the online virtual currency - Bitcoin. Due to the huge power consumption of the equipment, in order to reduce costs, they resorted to stealing electricity to keep the equipment running. In just 85 days, the value of the stolen electricity exceeded 900,000 yuan.
During the interview, Jiang Hongxin, director of the Xidianzi Police Station of the Suizhong County Public Security Bureau, said that the Xidianzi power supply line in Suizhong is supplied by the Wanjia 66 kV substation. The daily loss rate of the line system was below 6% in 2018. Since January this year, the power loss has soared abnormally. The Suizhong County Power Department has organized relevant personnel to analyze the reasons for the high loss of the line many times, but failed to find the crux of the problem, so they reported the case to the police station in March.
After receiving the report, the Xidianzi Police Station in Suizhong County attached great importance to it and immediately assigned police officers to conduct an investigation. After a lot of visits and investigations, the police learned that a bungalow in a nearby village was rented to a tenant from another place. Generally, few outsiders came to rent a house here, and some villagers reported that there was often a loud fan roar in the bungalow, which aroused the police's vigilance. In the subsequent visits, the police also learned that this family rarely opened the door, and the villagers rarely saw them. In addition, someone drove around the surrounding area every day, which aroused the police's suspicion.
After further investigation, the police determined that the resident was a major suspect of stealing electricity and decisively formulated an action plan. At 9:00 on March 22, Jiang Hongxin, director of the Xidianzi Police Station, led police officers Zhang Ye, Li Chengfeng and others to control the suspect who was watching in the car at the gate of the bungalow. At the same time, the police climbed over the nearly two-meter-high wall, entered the bungalow, and captured the man who was sleeping soundly. "We saw at the scene that the bungalow was full of Bitcoin mining machines, and they were still running non-stop." Jiang Hongxin said.
The police interrogated the two people and learned that the person in the car was Qi Mouyi, who was responsible for driving around and keeping watch. If he found anything, he would immediately notify Qi Mouer to cut off the electricity theft line. The person sleeping in the house was Qi Mouer, who was responsible for equipment operation and maintenance. If he received a call from Qi Mouyi, he would immediately shut down the electricity theft equipment and report the situation to his boss in a timely manner.
The police found out that the two were employed by a boss named Zheng and came to the local area in November last year and March this year respectively. The electricity stealing equipment was delivered from Beijing and Nanjing and installed in November last year. In order to prevent the boss Zheng from escaping after learning the news, the police promptly blocked the news and arrested him as soon as possible.
After interrogation, the criminal suspect Zheng confessed that they rented houses in remote rural areas, privately modified the electrical wires, and stole electricity to use "mining machines" to mine Bitcoin for profit.
It is understood that the criminal suspect Zheng and his accomplices started "mining" and stealing electricity at the end of last year, stealing electricity worth more than 900,000 yuan in 85 days. At present, the three criminal suspects in the case have been detained and the case is under further trial.
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According to Article 264 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China
Whoever steals a large amount of public or private property, or commits theft multiple times, burglary, theft with a weapon, or pickpocketing, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance, and shall be fined or fined alone; if the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years, and shall be fined; if the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment, and shall be fined or have his property confiscated.
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Source: Huludao Daily