The Malaysia department discovered that a Bitcoin mining farm was stealing electricity for their ASIC machines, so they not only shut down the operation, but also steamrolled 1,069 of their machines. This was a joint operation carried out by the police department and Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) in Miri that took place between February-April, 2021. An investigation was carried out after residents complained of frequent power outages. Read more to see these machines get steamrolled.
Eight individuals were allegedly arrested, and the Bitcoin mining equipment itself was reported to be worth around $1.25-million USD. If you dig deeper at the Bitcoin’s mining map from the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, you’ll find that Malaysia accounted for approximately 4% of the cryptocurrecy’s total network hash rate as of April this year.
A total of six people have been successfully charged under Section 379 of the Penal Code for electricity theft and have been fined up to RM8,000 and jailed for up to eight months. The electricity theft for mining bitcoin activities has caused frequent power outages and in 2021, three houses were razed due to illegal electricity supply connections,” said Hakemal Hawari, Miri Police Chief ACP.
