Thousands of PS4s have been seized after they were discovered in an old warehousethat was being used illegally for cryptocurrency mining. Ukraine’s Internal Security Service (SBU) said last week that in the city of Vinnytsia, located along the Southern Bug River, there was an abandoned warehouse in its industrial area that once belonged to the power company “JSC Vinnytsiaoblenergo”.
During their raid on the warehouse, police authorities discovered what they called “the country’s largest underground cryptocurrency mining farm,” which was stealing power from the country’s power grid . According to the report, 5,000 gaming devices were seized, 3,800 of which were consoles. More than 500 graphics cards and 50 processors were also found.
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JSC Vinnytsiaoblenergo said in a statement: “The equipment used for cryptocurrency mining has never been used and does not belong to our company. We will not find excuses. Let the SBU figure out what happened here.” The company also added that there is no evidence of electricity theft.
According to current estimates, the value of the stolen electricity exceeds €200,000 per month, while the local network was close to collapsing and leaving entire neighborhoods in the city of Vinnytsia, with a population of 400,000, without power.
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To conceal the electricity theft, the crypto miners used “tampered” meters that did not reflect the actual power consumption. The police are now trying to identify all suspects and determine whether company officials were involved in this.
Ukrainian police also reported that searches were carried out at the "perpetrator's residences", where draft notes on electricity usage, notebooks, handsets and USB storage devices were also seized.
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The investigations were carried out by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies under the supervision of the General Prosecutor's Office.
In 2019, at another cryptocurrency farm, Chinese authorities discovered cables hidden in fish ponds that were used to connect to the electrical grid of an oil rig. The active Bitcoin rigs were found hidden in a shed after drones were used to track down the perpetrator.
