A secret cryptocurrency mining operation was discovered recently tucked away in a crawl space within a Massachusetts high school. The alleged culprit, Nadeam Nahas, is a 39-year-old school faculty member who skipped out on his arraignment on Thursday, Feb. 23, with some severe charges and now an additional warrant on his head.
Massachusetts police initially answered a 911 call in 2021 when Cohasset Middle/High School was found to be host to an illegal crypto mining operation amid a routine inspection. The small town's facilities director discovered a multitude of misplaced computers, electrical wires, and ductwork that led to suspicions of fraudulent behavior.
The Cohasset Police Department's Chief, William Quigley, gave a statement on Wednesday highlighting these events. With the information brought to the town's IT director, who confirmed the equipment as being a crypto mining rig illegally leveraging the school's electricity, several; additional domestic authorities were called to safely remove and analyze the hardware, including the Cost Guard Investigative Service and the Department of Homeland Security.
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Following a three-month-long investigation, Nahas was found to be a major suspect in the case. At the time, he was serving the school as its assistant facilities director, yet he has since resigned from the post. A show-cause hearing took place thereafter, leading to a criminal complaint issuance.
As mentioned previously, an arraignment was to take place on Thursday, Feb. 23, but Nahas failed to attend. His charges included fraudulent use of electricity and vandalizing the school, which could see Nahas facing two to ten years with a $400 fine and three years, respectively. The judge rejected a motion to reschedule the arraignment and issued a default warrant on Nahas. According to the Washington Post, Nahas' listed phone number has not answered any messages.
Crypto mining, despite the seeming downturn in the market, remains a rather steady and healthy enterprise. In July of last year, the New York Times reported that the total crypto mining capacity rivals the energy consumption of Houston, Texas. It isn't exactly cheap on the electric bills, as one might imagine, and can be quite detrimental to the environment in the long run, given several strides in legislation to curb its energy use, as seen in China.
Here in the US, while oftentimes looked down upon, crypto mining was actually embraced by none other than Texas, which in April 2022, first began mining bitcoin and thus added the crypto to its balance sheet. More recently, Montana Senate passed a bill protecting bitcoin and crypto miners.
Coined "Right to Mine," the new bitcoin bill out of Montana aims to shield crypto mining companies from so-called "drisciminatory digital asset mining utility rates." Essentially, the bill will shelter Montona-based crypto institutions from having to pay exorbitant fees on energy bills. It passed by a landslide vote of 37-13, painting Montana as a safe haven for crypto mining.
