Ukraine police last week seized around 9,000 games consoles and computers in an illegalcrypto mine.- The mine was stealing as much as $259,300 in electricity each month, investigators said.
- Police said it was the largest underground crypto mine to have been discovered in Ukraine.
A huge underground cryptocurrency
Police said they'd seized 5,000 computers and 3,800 games consoles that were being used in the illegal mine, the largest discovered in the country.
The mine, in the city of Vinnytsia, near Kyiv, stole as much as $259,300 in electricity each month, the Security Service of Ukraine said. To conceal the theft, the operators of the mine used electricity meters that did not reflect their actual energy consumption, officials said.
"Such illegal activity could lead to power surges and left people without electricity," the security service said.
Police said that criminal proceedings had begun over the theft of water, electricity, and thermal energy. The mine was run by residents of Kyiv and Vinnytsia, a city about three hours outside the capital, police said.
Photos released by state investigators show a cavernous room filled wall-to-wall with metal racks of neatly lined-up computers and Sony Playstation consoles.
Along with the computers and consoles, officials said they also seized more than 500 graphic cards, 50 processors, and documentation on the site's electricity consumption. They also took notebooks, phones, and flash drives, according to the press statement.