Crypto mining run from US school crawl space

A city official ran an illegal cryptocurrency mining operation from a crawl space under a school in the US state of Massachusetts, police said.

Nadeam Nahas, 39, who was an assistant facility director in Cohasset, pleaded not guilty in court Friday.

He is charged with fraudulent use of electricity and vandalizing Cohasset High School, just outside Boston.

Crypto is digital currency that can be “mined” through specialized computer processors.

Due to the heavy computing needed to confirm transactions, such mining consumes enormous amounts of electricity.

Authorities were first alerted to the possible crypto-mining operation in December 2021, Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said in a statement to the BBC.

Mr Quigley said the operation was run from an external crawl space discovered under Cohasset High School by the director of facilities.

“Detectives interviewed the principal, who said that during a routine inspection of the school, he noticed electrical wiring, temporary ductwork and numerous computers that seemed out of place,” Quigley said.

Investigators discovered computers in the crawlspace and found they were being used in a cryptocurrency mining operation that were illegally connected to the school’s electrical system, police said.

After a three-month investigation with the help of the US Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security, police identified the suspect as Nahas.

The mining operation had been running from April to December 2021, costing the high school around $17,500 (£14,600) in electricity, according to court records seen by the Boston Globe.

Nahas worked for the city of Cohasset from January 2021 until he resigned early last year.

The BBC asked the Cohasset Public Schools District for comment, and was referred back to the police statement on the matter.

In a statement shared with CBS News, the district said it had cooperated with police throughout the investigation.