Massachusetts man charged after mining crypto in school crawl space

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A Massachusetts man is facing charges after mining cryptocurrency in a school crawlspace, according to a February 23 Washington Post report.

This report indicates that Nadeam Nahas, a municipal employee from Cohasset, MA, was to be arrested today for fraudulent use of electricity and vandalism. He failed to appear in court and the judge issued a warrant in absentia, giving the police the power to arrest him.

The city’s facilities manager – not named in the article – discovered computers and various equipment in a school crawl space in December 2021 and reported his discovery to the police. The city’s IT manager later determined that the setup was a crypto-mining network connected to the school’s electrical system.

Nahas, the city’s deputy facilities manager, was identified as the suspect. He would have resigned from his position at the beginning of 2022.

The original article did not state which cryptocurrency Nahas mined. However, Bitcoin is commonly mined in both legitimate and illicit mining operations.

Illegal crypto mining operations are quite common, as electricity costs far outweigh the profits from Bitcoin mining. According to Visual Capitalist, it cost $35,404 to mine a single Bitcoin last year ⁠—more than Bitcoin was worth at that time. Illegal miners can increase their profits by relying on a location that already pays for electricity.

Russian business portal TA Adviser reports dozens of illegal mining incidents since 2017. The perpetrators mined cryptocurrency at the premises of universities, psychiatric hospitals, government buildings, and airports, among others.

Although most of these incidents involve illegal connections to power sources, some involve the direct theft of mining equipment and other related crimes.

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