American teacher ran illegal crypto mining operation from school

Running a Bitcoin mining operation is quite and expensive operation. You have to invest in multiple high-powered computers, cables, air conditioning (to keep everything cooled) and be prepared to pay a lot of electricity bills. Furthermore, unless Bitcoin trades above a certain level, you don’t even make a profit (as Gilfoyle explained to us in a legendary clip from the series Silicon Valley).

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An American man who worked for a high school in Massachusetts as both a teacher and a facilities manager had found a good solution for this back in 2021. In a spare room under the school he had 11 spare computers hooked up to the air-conditioning system and bought some cables. In terms of electricity, he simply used the school facilities. Everything was then linked to his own laptop on which he could quietly mine Bitcoin. During that year, students were mostly required to stay at home and learn online, so the criminal had free rein.

“Police say Nahas operated his crypto mine for eight months, illegally using electricity from the Cohasset school, racking up more than 17,000 dollars in electricity charges.”

I’m dying! I wonder if he was mining #Dogecoin? 🤣 pic.twitter.com/OszWptw4Ic

— justelon (@justelonmusk69) February 23, 2023

17,500 dollars in electricity bills

Everything went well for a period of some 8 months. The man, named Nadeam Nahas, deposited the crypto coins he earned into his account and had no operational fees. Since Bitcoin had a very good year in 2021, he made a lot of money from his illegal operation. The US police are still not sure how many.

They did discover that he had set up several Twitter accounts with which he promoted various smaller coins.

The chickens came home to roost when the school got their electricity bill, of course. It was about $17,500 more than what they had budgeted for. They went looking for an “electricity leak” and found Nadeam’s operation under their own floor. The man was promptly arrested.

Police: Man facing charges after ‘crypto currency mining operation’ discovered under Cohasset school https://t.co/XVpuQv3WgG

— Boston 25 News (@boston25) February 23, 2023

The lawsuit against Nadeam has now started and is widely discussed in the American media (Gizmodo and the Boston Globe also covered), probably to warn others who have the same idea not to do so.

Golden Sikorka / Depositphotos.com