DOJ Charges Duo for Crypto Mining in School District, US Power Control
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged two senior employees of the Paterson Unified School District with running crypto mining operations on the campuses of ten of the district's schools, using school resources and draining electricity costs.
In a recent statement, the DOJ said Jeffrey Menge, assistant superintendent and chief operating officer of the Paterson Unified School District, along with Eric Drabert, the school district's director of IT, were involved in developing a crypto mining farm and transferred it all. crypto into their own crypto wallets after that.
“They bought high-end graphics cards and used those cards, along with other school district property and electricity, to power cryptocurrency mining in the school district.”
However, the statement did not provide clarity on how many schools in the district, comprising 10 schools serving 6,200 students, were used for crypto mining. Additionally, the type of crypto mining is not specified.
Some of the most widely mined cryptos include Bitcoin (BTC), Monero (XMR), Ravencoin (RVN), and Dogecoin (DOGE).
According to recent data from CoinGecko, mining one bitcoin alone requires about 266,000 kilowatt hours. This will take about seven years, requiring an electricity consumption of 143 kWh.
Along with other fraudulent activities, DOJ said Menge embezzled a total of $1 million to $1.5 million, while Drabert embezzled $250,000 to $300,000.
This follows the US energy regulator's recent crackdown on crypto miners in an effort to reduce energy waste in the country.
On February 1, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced that crypto miners must report their energy consumption for the next six months. This move has led to an influx of crypto mining operations in the wake of the recent Bitcoin price spike.
Related: Bitcoin Mining Company Core Scientific In 2018 By 2023, $812 million worth of BTC was discovered.
A day earlier, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced that starting next week it will release a survey to measure the electricity usage of domestic crypto mining companies.
This is not only a concern in the US, regulators around the world are trying to control excessive electricity consumption.
In December 2023, Cointelegraph reported that Indonesian police authorities shut down 10 Bitcoin mining operations, accusing the organizers of electricity theft worth $10 million.
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