Media: Oligarch Kolomoisky organised Bitcoin mining at a US plant

In the facilities of the CC Metals & Alloys (CCMA) steel plant in Kentucky, owned by Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi and his business partners, a data center has appeared where a third party mines cryptocurrencies. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The plant, with a 70-year history, halted operations in July and plans to lay off the remaining workers by the end of 2020. The only thing operating on the vast plant complex are Bitcoin mining farms, according to plant workers. One of the warehouses is filled with mining equipment while the plant’s main production line stands idle.

“Computers were brought in by the truckload,” said one anonymous plant worker.

The cryptocurrency mining operation runs independently of the plant itself, and the cutbacks have not affected it, workers say.

In July, a CCMA spokesperson said the plant invited a third party to base a computer center on the site that works in artificial intelligence and blockchain technology—in order to diversify revenues. She did not specify who the third party was, nor disclose financial details of such an arrangement.

“Both artificial intelligence and blockchain are industries with high energy consumption and, it is expected, will grow exponentially over the next decade and capture a $20 billion market. Building on the success of the first pilot program, we can expand this line of business. CCMA believes it prudent to have multiple revenue streams,” said the spokesperson.

The cryptocurrency computing center on the CCMA site is just one of about five that have emerged in the Tennessee River valley in recent years thanks to the region’s large supplies of cheap electricity, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty adds.

Some workers suspect the main reason the owners are reluctant to restart the plant is pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice.

In August 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil complaint against Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov. They are accused of, between 2008 and 2016, withdrew billions of dollars through fictitious loans from PrivatBank, which they owned at the time.

The prosecutors say most of these funds were invested in the United States, including commercial real estate in Texas and Ohio, steel mills in Kentucky, West Virginia and Michigan, and a mobile-phone manufacturing plant in Illinois.

Assistance in acquiring assets was provided by Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov’s Miami partners – Mordechai Korff and Uri’el Laberi, who currently serve as managers of the CCMA plant.

The oligarchs themselves deny these accusations. The FBI continues its investigation.

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