Around $1 million worth of electricity was purportedly stolen, and as a result, Indonesian law officials seized 1,134 Bitcoin machines, according to a local report.
Ten Bitcoin mining facilities are said to have been shut down by Indonesian police, who accused the operators of stealing electricity worth close to $1 million US.
An extensive Bitcoin mining enterprise spanning ten locations in Indonesia was targeted by the North Sumatra Police Force, which reportedly confiscated 1,134 Bitcoin mining devices, 11 metres of electrical wire, and other computer equipment.
Irjen Agung Setya Imam Effendi, the Chief of North Sumatra Police, claimed that the operation’s planners had interfered with electrical connections in order to power the large number of Bitcoin mining devices.
“As we can see here, this is the PLN box. However, the electricity flow inside it is not the proper flow that should enter the box and be measured by the meter. Instead, what they took is the upper part, where electricity is taken directly from the pole and channeled inside.”
It was also mentioned that the projected total loss from these ten places where electricity was stolen is 14.4 billion Indonesian Rupiahs (IDR), or around $935,666 USD.
This comes after a Chinese government official who helped Bitcoin miners get electricity was given a life sentence.
According to reports, the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Yi Xiao, a former deputy chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference Party Group, to life in jail for abusing his position of authority in a Bitcoin mining company.
Under the company name Jiumu Group Genesis Technology, Xiao is accused of running a 2.4 billion Chinese yuan ($329 million) Bitcoin mining operation from 2017 to 2021.
Together with other business executives, Xiao gathered over 160,000 Bitcoin miners and, at one point, 10% of Fuzhou’s total electricity usage.