By CCN.com: A New York Bitcoin miner hosting company called Northway Mining stands accused of stealing at least 5100 pieces of mining equipment from two companies. Given the scope of the investigation currently underway by the federal government, the damage might be much more significant than this.
Northway Mining Sued For Violation of RICO Act
At least four Bitcoin companies have been allegedly victimized, though we use the term “allegedly” in its most legal definition: strictly because the accused have not yet been convicted.
MinedMap, Inc, Serenity Alpha, Inc, both of Nevada, and Quebec, Inc from Canada. The other is BlockAssets, a company based in Perth, Australia.
The former chose Northway Mining to host more 2800 Bitmain S9 miners, over half of its entire fleet, in September 2018. Another 800 miners were sent to the facility by the companies. The latter had the decision made for them by a Canadian company who couldn’t handle their 1500 units. We’ll be following up with a story about BlockAssets at another time.
As to MinedMap, Serenity Alpha, and Quebec Inc, they’re collectively filing lawsuits against Northway Mining, as a start. At the same time, the issue is currently being treated as a criminal investigation by federal authorities. As you can see in the videos below, the US Marshall Service searched the facility leased by Northway in Coxsackie, New York, this past week.
At Least Over 5000 Bitmain Miners Stolen in All
The pending lawsuit alleges that Northway bilked clients out of nearly 3600 pieces of Bitcoin mining equipment (one was recovered with the help of the Marshalls), as well as over $500,000 in deposits. The complaint records this:
Québec Inc. also requested the return of its deposits of $46,746.09, $23,255.66, and $23,824.42 for a total of $93,826.17 because its deposits had not been spent on electrical power since the Miners were not plugged in. […] On September 21, 2018, MinedMap and Serenity wired $162,000.00 to Northway as a deposit on the electrical costs Northway was to incur hosting MinedMap and Serenity’s Miners. In addition, almost one week later, MinedMap and Serenity wired an additional $270,000.00 as an additional deposit for electrical costs Northway would incur in providing electricity to MinedMap and Serenity’s Miners.