Any chance you own a stolen S9? There could have been 2800 or more sold from NY

[Steamtyme]

I came across a story yesterday that was little more than a few paragraphs and someone's tweets. A few companies I never heard of, and a large amount of miners missing. The strangest part is this took place in New York state, which is not necessarily the location I expect.

Today there is more details and it really does blow my mind.

https://www.ccn.com/new-york-bitcoin-mining-magnate-accused-of-stealing-over-5000-crypto-miners

So I tend to think of Hosting facilities catering to the masses, a bunch of people who can't build their own facilities. I do recall talking with someone in the biz before, and they mentioned people who operate for 1 large client but I assumed that was a bit of a rarity. Then here is a prime example of how even a well backed presumably well-versed crypto firm/firms can be fleeced. These people are out millions on gear, cash, and BTC.

One thing that crossed my mind here is that because they waited so long to actually show up and confront the guy, there's no telling what was done with the miners. One theory is that they were sold, and a lot of people wouldn't think twice about buying used gear from anybody let alone a "hosting facility". So being the US, I'm not sure on what proof the authorities would need to confiscate miners from citizens if they think it's stolen property.

How many people who have bought used gear could prove it wasn't stolen? Also what about Brokers specializing in moving used gear, are they liable if it wasn't disclosed?

[1715390577]

1715390577

[1715390577]

1715390577

[1715390577]

1715390577

[1715390577]

1715390577

[philipma1957]

Ebay  has had its share of stolen items  sold on it.  They are not held responsible in every case but in some cases they have been.

I think I  was contacted by NorthWay last year to have gear hosted by them I will need to check my pm's. I think they sent me them in the fall or late summer of 2018.

[Steamtyme]

Wow sounds like you might have dodged a bullet there. Not that you have a shortage of places to put gear these days.

I'm pretty sure up here any gear they reasonably suspected came from the facilities would be recovered and there's the potential to be charged with possession of stolen goods. That's if they suspect you knew the gear was stolen. I assume anyone who bought the miners would be off the hook for that, if a similar law exists.

I'm just not positive on how they would be able to prove the miners owner if say the labels are removed. Pretty sure all you would get from Bitmain would be barcodes for the batch ordered. I'm assume this as they would have ordered by the pallet.

[mikeywith]

bat shit crazy  

according to the link you posted from ccn.com:

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.

plus other deposits, nearly half a million dollars in fiat were stolen and not just the gears ( if i understand correctly).

but this very particular piece is interesting:

... since the Miners were not plugged in.

I don't quite understand this part, when you get someone to host your gears, you have full access , or at worst case scenario you could monitor the hashrate.

if thousands of gears wen't offline, the gears owners should have known right after the gears were unplugged ! , it takes a lot of time dealing with the transfer of that large number of miners.

but reading further down, it seems like MinedMap claim the miners were never plugged in , if that's the case why continue sending them money for electricity bills??

also by looking at the video, i wonder, if they were able to get rid of the miners why not the boxes? and if they wanted to sell them , why unbox them in the first place?

my guess is that Northway lied about their ability of hosting that many miners, and they took them else were, but still if they were else where up and running, MinedMap would never go this far.

there is something missing here, and i think the most important question is the one you pointed out:

One thing that crossed my mind here is that because they waited so long to actually show up and confront the guy,

[Steamtyme]

I don't quite understand this part, when you get someone to host your gears, you have full access , or at worst case scenario you could monitor the hashrate.

if thousands of gears wen't offline, the gears owners should have known right after the gears were unplugged ! , it takes a lot of time dealing with the transfer of that large number of miners.

but reading further down, it seems like MinedMap claim the miners were never plugged in , if that's the case why continue sending them money for electricity bills??

Yeah somewhere in there it says they couldn't even host 200 Miners June/2018. So it's believable that the majority never did get plugged in. It's hard to figure out if any of the companies saw their gear get turned on. So it would be interesting to see what the sell was or if the due diligence was lacking. Maybe they sold the facility under the guise of an immediate or pending upgrade. Pay up front to secure revenue and we'll have you online in a few months, with a deal on power cost. I could see the appeal in this, and some of the conversations allude to this sort of agreement.

The payments themselves were made in September, and suggest they expected the miners online within weeks I would imagine. It's a large chunk of money to tie up otherwise.  Again I think it comes down to due diligence in spending a few dollars on flights to investigate your investment.

also by looking at the video, i wonder, if they were able to get rid of the miners why not the boxes? and if they wanted to sell them , why unbox them in the first place?

my guess is that Northway lied about their ability of hosting that many miners, and they took them else were, but still if they were else where up and running, MinedMap would never go this far.

there is something missing here, and i think the most important question is the one you pointed out...

That is one of the theories that they are hosted somewhere. Northway had a lot of "projects" on the go there is talk in the article about a supposed build in Louisiana that never got off the ground either. I think there is a lot missing and I'm going to try and pay attention to anything that comes out for this. It's a weird large scale scam, and I'm amazed it got this far given the circumstances.