Russian Authorities Discover 30,000sqm Illegal Crypto Mining Farm in Industrial Plant

Russian prosecutors say they have shut down a 30,000 sqm crypto mining farm illegally operating in an industrial plant located on state-owned property.

Per a Telegram post from the official account of the Krasnoyarsk Krai Prosecutor’s Office, the “open-air” facility was located in the town of Nazarovo, some 240 km west of Krasnoyarsk, in Central Siberia.

The office said it had obtained a court order allowing bailiffs to raid the facility. The farm reportedly mined coins worth around 4.6 million rubles ($58,672) per month for its operators.

Crypto Mining Farm ‘Used Scores of Transformers and Generators’

Prosecutors explained that the operators had fenced off the facility with barbed wire. However, its location was nothing if not conspicuous. They wrote: “The farm was right out in the open air in the town’s industrial hub district.”

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Officially, the site was registered as a “non-residential building” under the name of a management company.

However, when investigators conducted their raid, they found several transformers on the premises. They also discovered power generators, cooling equipment, and crypto mining rigs.

The management firm, prosecutors said, leased the property to a crypto mining firm, along with a “non-existent building.” The miner had reportedly connected their rigs to the city’s power grid.

Prosecutors said they received a tip-off from an energy provider. The latter reported that it had detected a high probability of emergency power outages at the facility.

When they investigated, the prosecutors discovered that the company had not obtained permission to operate power-receiving units or use state-owned land.

They also found that the miners were not complying with fire safety requirements, which constituted a public safety risk.

Operator Ignored Prosecutors’ Warnings

The office said it initially wrote to the firm to ask it to desist, adding that the operator “ignored” this request.

The prosecution service responded by petitioning a district court, which responded by banning all activity at the facility “until the violations are rectified.”

In February this year, a staffer at a Krasnoyarsk Krai energy provider was discovered taking bribes worth $7,380 from illegal crypto miners.

The staffer agreed to turn a blind eye to the miners’ operations and their illegal connections to the grid.

The same miners stole electricity worth about 9.4 million rubles ($119,592) from the Krasnoyarsk Krai energy system, investigators found.

According to the Federal Tax Service’s registry of crypto miners, Krasnoyarsk Krai is one of Russia’s top three crypto mining regions, along with the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Tatarstan.