Hong Kong Workers Busted for Mining Crypto Using Electricity from Care Homes

Two Hong Kong technicians have been arrested after allegedly siphoning electricity and internet access from care homes for the disabled to power a hidden crypto mining ￰1￱ Takeaways: Two technicians were arrested for secretly running crypto miners using electricity and internet from care homes for the ￰2￱ unauthorized operation caused electricity bills to spike and slowed down internet ￰3￱ warned the public to monitor utility usage during facility ￰4￱ unauthorized setup caused electricity bills to spike by up to HK$9,000 ($1,153), raising red flags for staff and prompting a police investigation, according to the South China Morning ￰5￱ said the men, aged 32 and 33, installed eight mining machines in the suspended ceilings of two care home offices—five devices in Sham Shui Po and three more in Kwun ￰6￱ Miners Secretly Drain Power and Internet from Care Facilities The miners ran non-stop, drawing power and bandwidth from the facilities’ ￰7￱ case came to light when one care home reported unusually sluggish internet performance and elevated power ￰8￱ Ng Tsz-wing of the Sham Shui Po police district’s technology and financial crime unit said the facility’s IT team discovered unauthorized equipment hidden above the ceiling tiles during a routine check.

“After in-depth investigation and analysis, police found that the two men from an engineering company took the opportunity of facilities upgrading in August and connected the mining machine to the institutions’ network and power system,” Ng said. “And they proceeded to mine cryptocurrency.” The suspects, who have worked at the engineering firm for several years, were arrested on Friday in Mong Kok and Sham Shui ￰9￱ believe the operation was not part of a wider syndicate, describing it as an isolated incident. "This ruined me." As financial scams explode worldwide, this is the story of how a retiree in Hong Kong fell for a crypto scam and lost his life ￰10￱ on Bloomberg Investigates: ￰0￱ ￰11￱ — Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) September 10, 2025 While the institutions involved were not named, authorities are continuing their ￰12￱ Hong Kong’s Theft Ordinance, unauthorized use of electricity carries a maximum penalty of five years in ￰13￱ Ng urged the public to remain vigilant during facility upgrades.

“The public should also pay more attention to electricity bills or network usage and make relevant checks and notify police in case they find some suspicious circumstances,” he ￰14￱ Fong Po-kiu, honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, noted that the cost of mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is high due to the intense power demands of running mining equipment continuously. “It is like turning on your air conditioning all day,” Fong said. “Some bad people may take the risk of breaking the law to save on electricity to generate their bitcoin.” Crypto Influencer ‘CP3O’ Sentenced for $4.5M Cryptojacking Scheme Last month, Charles ￰15￱ III, known online as “CP3O,” was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for orchestrating a $4.5 million cryptojacking ￰16￱ to the ￰17￱ of Justice, Parks stole computing power and storage from major cloud providers and used it to illegally mine cryptocurrency between January and August ￰18￱ DOJ says Parks converted his illicit gains into cash and used the funds to finance a lavish lifestyle, including a Mercedes-Benz, luxury hotels, jewelry, and first-class ￰19￱ portraying himself as a self-made crypto success on social media, authorities say his wealth was rooted in fraud.