The Kanashsky District Court in Chuvashia is set to hear a case involving a local underground miner who is accused of placing two containers on his land and stealing energy worth 7 million rubles.
The press service has confirmed that a criminal case has been initiated against the entrepreneur under Part 2 of Art. 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which deals with causing damage by deception on an especially large scale.
The Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chuvash Republic has conducted the investigation. If convicted, the entrepreneur faces a possible prison sentence of up to 5 years.
Officials from the Kanash department of the Chuvash Energy Retail Company initially reported the matter to the law enforcement agencies.
They had noticed a significant excess in energy consumption standards at several sites registered under individual housing construction.
Upon further investigation, it was revealed that the plots belonged to an entrepreneur from Cheboksary who had installed two containers with over 40 ASIC miners on them.
The entrepreneur was found to be paying for electricity at the tariffs meant for the general population, causing the power supply company a loss of 7 million rubles.
This isn’t the first instance of such crimes as earlier, in the Stavropol Territory, a large mining farm was discovered by the police.
The farm was found to have 66 ASIC miners that had been illegally connected to the power grid. The underground miner had stolen over 954,000 kWh, worth over 6 million rubles.