La police du Kazakhstan arrête un gang forçant les informaticiens à gérer des fermes cryptographiques

Les forces de l'ordre au Kazakhstan ont arrêté des membres d'un groupe criminel soupçonné d'avoir forcé des experts en informatique à exploiter des installations souterraines pour l'extraction de crypto-monnaie avec des menaces et du chantage. Les racketteurs auraient fait jusqu'à un demi-million de dollars américains. dollars a month from their business.

Kazakhstan Busts Illegal Crypto Mining Organization, Detains Dozens

Authorities in Kazakhstan have arrested a group of “criminally oriented individuals” and former convicts who pressured people savvy in information and crypto technology to run illegal installations for cryptocurrency production. Many of the apprehended 23 people had a background in debt-collecting and extortion, the country’s Interior Ministry said in a déclaration cette semaine.

The gang was making estimated profits in the range of $300,000 à 500,000 each month as a result of their unauthorized crypto mining activities, the department further revealed. During searches, police found a number of weapons, including pistols, ammunition and a Kalashnikov assault rifle. One of the gang members turned out to be an army serviceman.

Investigators were able to establish that the undertaking was quite sophisticated, an indication that the group was not working entirely on its own, the news outlet Eurasianet noted in a report. Over the past few months, it has emerged that major mining operations in Kazakhstan were linked to high-ranking officials and powerful businessmen, added the online portal which covers developments in the region.

Kazakhstan became a crypto mining hotspot after China cracked down on the industry in May, last year. Mining companies were attracted by its low electricity rates but their influx caused an increasing energy deficit. The government in Nur-Sultan responded by taking steps to reduce the consumption in the sector by cutting power supply to licensed mining enterprises on a number of occasions, increasing a tax levy, and going after illegal miners.

This spring, the Financial Monitoring Agency discovered and fermer plus que 100 underground mining farms. Commenting on the offensive, the agency remarked that among their operators were firms affiliated with Bolat Nazarbayev, brother of Kazakhstan’s ex-president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and Alexander Klebanov who heads the Central Asian Electricity Corporation.

Some of the other closed down facilities were linked to Kairat Sharipbayev, who is the former chairman of the national gas distribution company Qazaqgaz and is believed to be married to Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter, Dariga. Yerlan Nigmatulin, brother of the former speaker of the lower house of parliament, is also suspected of having profited from unauthorized mining, les détails du rapport.

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Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev est un journaliste d'Europe de l'Est féru de technologie qui aime la citation de Hitchens: "Être écrivain, c'est ce que je suis, plutôt que ce que je fais. Outre la crypto, blockchain et fintech, la politique internationale et l'économie sont deux autres sources d'inspiration.

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