Police Officers in Ukraine Caught Secretly Mining Crypto at Work for Four Months

Employees of a regional police department in Ukraine were recently caught mining cryptocurrencies using the department's resources, according to the court document. They had been mining for four months before they got caught and their mining farm seized.

Police Mining Farm Discovered

Police Officers in Ukraine Caught Secretly Mining Crypto at Work for Four MonthsEmployees of the National Police of Ukraine reportedly set up a cryptocurrency mining farm in their workplace and mined cryptocurrencies for four months before they were caught, local media reported this week. The employees work at the Rivne Oblast regional police headquarters' Communications Department. This information was revealed in the Rivne City Court document number No. 569/8710/18, Finclub reported.

Ukrainian news agency Glavcom elaborated, "In April of this year, employees of the Department of Homeland Security of the Police Headquarters in Rivne Oblast identified the [crypto mining] equipment at the office of the Communications Department," adding:

The same day, the investigator of the regional administration removed from his colleagues two wooden frames, which featured eight graphics cards, six power units, two hard drives, a motherboard and a complete system unit.

The Investigation

Police Officers in Ukraine Caught Secretly Mining Crypto at Work for Four Months"A pre-trial investigation in the criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 185 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on the fact of theft of electricity" has already begun, the publication detailed, noting that the court decided not to reveal the cryptocurrencies mined.

The investigation "established that from the beginning of 2018, officials of the Communications Department…abused their official position, acting in contravention of the interests of the service," the news outlet quoted the court document. The employees unilaterally used the electricity of the region "for their own purposes, for the proper functioning of the equipment for the extraction of cryptocurrencies, which caused significant damage to the interests of the State Enterprise of the Rivne region," the court document details.

The policemen are charged with the theft of electricity belonging to the management of the National Police in the Rivne region, which they used to extract cryptocurrency, but it is not known how much electricity they used.

In Ukraine, there is currently no regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies despite having multiple proposals. However, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, Oleg Churiy, recently revealed that the central bank is working on a bill to regulate them.