Miner fined 1.5 million rubles in Irkutsk

The Leninsky District Court of Irkutsk has found a local resident guilty of illegally consuming electricity to mine cryptocurrency. The court’s press service reports this.

According to case materials, the debt for three summer months arose after a recalculation of charges under the commercial tariff.

“Previously, the man paid for electricity at the tariff for individuals, while the amount of electricity consumed in the non-residential premises of 25 square metres increased by more than 60 times,” the court said.

The defendant attempted to prove that he used electricity for domestic needs, in particular for producing distilled water. However, by the time of the trial the boiler for boiling water had been dismantled.

The court granted the plaintiff’s claims in full and ordered the miner to pay 1.5 million rubles to the electricity-supply company.

The appellate and cassation courts upheld the first-instance ruling.

Earlier, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, spoke of the need to register mining as a business activity for taxation.

Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog Feed — the full feed, ForkLog — the most important news, infographics and opinions.