The script for Iceland's biggest robbery: stealing mining machines, stealing electricity, and escaping prison

The story of Icelandic miners stealing electricity across borders is something that even movie scripts wouldn’t dare to write about.

On January 21, according to CCN, the verdict of the largest theft case in Iceland's history was announced. According to the degree of involvement of the suspects, 7 of the 11 suspects were eventually prosecuted and sentenced. Among them, the main culprit, Sindri Stephensson, received the heaviest criminal punishment - four and a half years in prison.

What was stolen in this incident were computer equipment for mining Bitcoin, namely 600 mining machines, worth 96 million ISK (about 800,000 US dollars), setting a record for the highest amount of theft in Iceland . Therefore, the main culprit Sindri was also called the "Bitcoin Thief".

But what’s interesting is that the case happened in December 2017. At that time, although the Icelandic police arrested all the theft gangs, the whereabouts of the mining machines remained a mystery. By March 2018, when the case was announced, the main culprit had escaped from prison and moved to Stockholm, Sweden, and there was still no clue about the 600 stolen mining machines.

Coincidentally, at the end of April, the Tianjin police cracked a case of electricity theft, in which 600 mining machines for Bitcoin mining happened to appear. The Icelandic police also sent an inquiry letter to China. Not surprisingly, the batch of mining machines missing in Iceland were the electricity theft mining machines seized by the Tianjin police.

600 mining machines stolen from Iceland remain a mystery

Seven suspects were prosecuted and sentenced, but the police did not find any trace of the stolen mining machines. More than 600 mining machines disappeared out of thin air.

On January 23 this year, the 2018 Icelandic Bitcoin Theft Case was officially sentenced in Iceland. Based on the value of the stolen items, more than 600 mining machines, totaling $800,000 worth of crypto mining equipment, the main culprit, Sindri Stephensson, was sentenced to the heaviest sentence - 4.5 years in prison.

Stephenson, a major criminal with a long criminal record, did not surrender, but tried every possible means and successfully escaped from the prison in Iceland . You read that right, he escaped from the prison in Iceland, but this was not the end of it. Something even more bizarre happened: he successfully boarded a flight to Stockholm, Sweden, and finally became an international fugitive in Amsterdam.

Stephenson was not punished for escaping prison because it is not a crime in Iceland.

According to the BBC, during his "escape" in Amsterdam, he accepted an interview with the New York Times and expressed his dissatisfaction with his life on the run. He said he was extremely eager to return to the prison in Iceland because he could not even guarantee his daily food and clothing in Amsterdam, and his life was threatened at any time.

The incident dates back to early December 2017.

At that time, thefts occurred in the southwest of the Reykjan Peninsula, which were described by the local police chief as "the worst theft in history" and "a highly organized crime." There were four consecutive mining machine thefts, the first three of which occurred in December 2017 and the fourth in January 2018.

The local police suspected that the thieves were stealing the mining machines not to sell them for money, but to obtain encrypted digital currency. Therefore, they strictly monitored the local electricity consumption to collect clues. In order to track down the thieves, the police did not make the theft public in time.

In fact, the suspects carried out a detailed plan and stole more than 600 mining machines from the data center in three thefts over a few weeks. According to media reports, the total value of these mining machines was close to 2 million US dollars at the time . Now, with the market downturn, the value of mining machines is also shrinking.

In addition to the prison sentence, the suspect also needs to pay 33 million Icelandic francs (about 272,000 U.S. dollars) in compensation to Advania, the company from which the stolen funds were stolen. However, nearly a year has passed since the theft, and if these mining machines are used for mining, the value of the mined Bitcoin and other encrypted digital currencies is also considerable, and may even be equivalent to the value of the mining machines themselves.

Bitcoin is currently the most expensive cryptocurrency and has always been ranked first on the cryptocurrency list. Therefore, it is sought after by many people. In order to get more Bitcoin, miners are willing to spend a lot of money to buy more Bitcoin mining machines. It is not surprising that they come to Iceland, where electricity is abundant and cheap.

600 mining machines in Tianjin, China stole electricity, the source remains a mystery

Not long after the Icelandic mining machine theft, something magical happened in China.

On April 25, 2018, the Tianjin police announced that they had cracked a major electricity theft case and discovered and confiscated 600 Bitcoin mining machines on the spot.

The situation at that time was that the power company in Tianjin detected power anomalies: the loss of a power line suddenly increased over a period of time, reaching 28% at the peak, so it reported the abnormal power consumption to the Tianjin police.

After investigation, the police found that a user's meter junction box was short-circuited. Based on this typical method of avoiding billing, the police uncovered a case of electricity theft. 600 mining machines and 8 high-power fans were seized on the spot. This electricity theft case has also become the largest electricity theft case in Tianjin in recent years. The monthly electricity bill for 600 such computers is estimated to be as high as hundreds of thousands of yuan.

When the police arrived at the scene, they found a total of five staff members, one of whom was subsequently detained.

After learning that the Tianjin police had confiscated 600 computers used to mine Bitcoin, Icelandic media speculated that the seized mining machines were likely the 600 stolen but missing computers from Iceland . Several Icelandic media outlets said, "The 600 stolen Bitcoin mining computers from Iceland may have flowed into China."

Iceland also sent an inquiry letter to the Tianjin police, but did not disclose any details subsequently, and it is unclear whether the Tianjin police responded.

It is not yet known whether the mining machines in the two incidents are from the same batch, but as for the incident itself, the stolen mining machines from Iceland traveled across the ocean to Tianjin, China to steal electricity. This is a rather dramatic story that surpasses the theft itself.

Iceland has always been a favorite destination for Bitcoin miners because of its naturally cold climate that is suitable for mining machines to operate, and its large geothermal energy reserves that provide cheap electricity. As a result, Iceland has naturally become a mining destination for miners who are eager for electricity, and even led to a Bitcoin "gold rush" in Iceland. A large number of miners have flocked to Iceland to generate electricity using its abundant geothermal and hydropower resources.

According to estimates by Iceland Energy, Iceland's mining operations will consume more than 100 megawatts of electricity in 2018, which exceeds the annual household electricity consumption of this country with a population of 340,000. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand the significance of 600 mining machines to Iceland.