{"id":24820,"date":"2023-02-25T07:49:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T12:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=24820"},"modified":"2023-02-25T07:49:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T12:49:03","slug":"crypto-mining-scheme-run-from-us-school-crawl-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/02\/25\/crypto-mining-scheme-run-from-us-school-crawl-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Crypto-mining scheme run from US school crawl space"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A town official was running an illegal cryptocurrency mining operation from a crawl space under a school in the US state of Massachusetts, police say.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Nadeam Nahas, 39, who was an assistant facilities director in Cohasset, pleaded not guilty in court on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He is charged with fraudulent use of electricity and vandalising Cohasset High School, just outside Boston.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Crypto is digital currency that can be “mined” through specialised computer processors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Because of the heavy computer calculations needed to verify transactions, such mining uses huge amounts of electricity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Authorities were first alerted to the possible crypto-mining operation in December 2021, said Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley in a statement to the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Quigley said the operation was being run from a remote crawl space that was discovered beneath Cohasset High School by its director of facilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Photo<\/picture><\/span><\/div>
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A number of computers were used for the alleged scheme (Image: Cohasset Police Department)<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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“Detectives interviewed the director, who said that during a routine inspection of the school he noticed electrical wires, temporary ductwork, and numerous computers that seemed out of place,” Mr Quigley said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Investigators discovered computers in the crawl space, and learned they were being used in a cryptocurrency mining operation that was illegally plugged into the school’s electrical system, police said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After a three-month investigation with the help of the US Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security, police identified the suspect as Mr Nahas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The mining operation had been running from April to December 2021, and cost the high school about $17,500 (\u00a314,600) in electricity, according to court records seen\u00a0by the Boston Globe.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Nahas worked for the Town of Cohasset from January 2021 until his resignation early last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The BBC asked Cohasset Public Schools district for comment, and were referred back to the police statement on the matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a statement shared with CBS News, the district said it had co-operated with police throughout the investigation.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A town official was running an illegal cryptocurrency mining operation from a crawl space under a school in the US state of Massachusetts, police say. Nadeam Nahas, 39, who was an assistant facilities director in […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[9253,7197,4686,1171,342,9254],"class_list":{"0":"post-24820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-usa","9":"tag-cohasset","10":"tag-crypto-mining","11":"tag-cryptocurrency","12":"tag-department-of-homeland-security","13":"tag-massachusetts","14":"tag-us-coast-guard","15":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24820"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24823,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24820\/revisions\/24823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}