A former Massachusetts state facility worker has been arrested for allegedly stealing electricity worth nearly $18,000 to run an illegal crypto-mining operation.
Nadeem Nahas, an ex-employee in the facilities department for Cohasset town, reportedly set up a secret crypto-mining facility in the crawl space of Cohasset High School.
According to a new report, Nahas failed to appear in court for a scheduled hearing, prompting the judge to issue a warrant for his arrest. The matter has been under investigation since December 2021.
Nahas is accused of stealing electricity worth $17,492.57 between April and December 2021 to power his crypto-mining computers. The police discovered 11 mining computers allegedly kept by Nahas after a three-month investigation.
Reports suggest that the high school’s facilities director noticed strange computers and wiring in the crawl space and reported it to the police, leading to the discovery of the crypto-mining operation.
Although Nahas resigned from his position in the Cohasset facilities department in March, the local police filed a complaint against him, leading to the scheduled hearing.
When Nahas failed to appear before the court, the judge issued a default warrant for his arrest. Default warrants are often issued when someone fails to appear for a hearing or obey an order. The warrant authorizes law enforcement agents to arrest the defaulter.
Nahas is not the first to face charges for running a crypto-mining operation with stolen electricity. In July 2021, Malaysian authorities cracked down on several illegal Bitcoin miners, seizing and destroying over $1.2 million worth of Bitcoin mining rigs.
