Malaysian electricity utility raids premises of 33 bitcoin miners accused of stealing $760,000 in power

Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), one of the largest electricity suppliers in Malaysia, has raided 33 bitcoin mining premises suspected of stealing power.

The premises bypassed meters and used electricity directly from TNB, which resulted in a loss of 3.2 million Malaysian ringgit ($760,736) for the supplier, Malay Mail reported Wednesday.

One location, for instance, was using 1,500 Amp (ampere) of unmetered electricity while the meter was only showing 3 Amp.

“The metered 3 Amp was used only for one lamp and a suction fan. They paid a bill of only RM219 [$52] whereas they should have been billed RM108,000 [$25,674] a month for the unmetered 1,500 Amp,” explained Siti Sarah Johana Mohd Said, general manager of metering and distributing network at TNB.