Our favorite Bitcoin story of all time seems to be closing as Iceland’s courts found ringleader Sindra Þór Stefánssyni guilty of stealing over 100 crypto mining rigs in Iceland. The incredible story—which at one point had Sindra breaking out of prison and fleeing the country on the same plane as the Prime Minister—now seems to have come to an end with him heading back to prison and no Bitcoin mining equipment recovered.
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A map of Iceland made entirely out of cocaine. Given the sun doesn't set there in the summer, parties are especially insufferable if one is cornered by the punch bowl from someone who wants to talk nonstop about his Bitcoin mining rigs (via Shutterstock).EXCLUSIVE: Burglaries, cocaine, stun guns, and other charges added in ‘Big Bitcoin Heist’
This summer’s most insane true-crime caper gets even crazier
Prosecutors and private attorneys have filed charges against seven individuals in Iceland in the ongoing investigation of the “Big Bitcoin Heist.” Modern Consensus has exclusively obtained signed documentation from the courthouse and consulted with Icelandic legal experts. What we found is astonishing. First, a quick recap: Police in Iceland have been putting together clues to a string of burglaries in Iceland centering around cryptocurrency mining components during the December 2017 bitcoin peak. In Iceland, more electricity is used in bitcoin mining than in all Icelandic homes combined. Over $2 million in equipment was reported stolen. Later, in a move straight out of a Hollywood thriller, prime suspect Sindri Thor Steffanson…
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Iceland heist story gets crazier as suspect escapes prison, uses PM’s plane as getaway
Seriously, our favorite story of the year keeps getting better
Police in Iceland called off the nationwide search for an escaped prisoner on Wednesday after airport security footage showed him boarding a plane to Sweden. The prisoner, Sindri Þór Stefánsson, was believed to be the ringleader of the $2 million “Big Bitcoin Heist,” the largest crime in the nation’s history. Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir was also on board. Police estimate that Stefánsson slipped out a window of the low security Sognið prison sometime after 1 a.m. Prison officials cannot say what time they last saw him or how he escaped, mostly because they don’t know. The remote prison doesn’t have bars or even a fence around its perimeter. Prisoners…
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Wade Hampton III's statue outside South Carolina's statehouse. Would be nicer to see Lionel Hampton's statue (via Shutterstock).South Carolina AG fights against Genesis crypto creationism
American state issues sends cease and desist to Icelandic miner
The South Carolina Attorney General’s office sent a cease and desist letter to Genesis Mines for offering sales through its website within the state without a license. The state exercised its authority over the Icelandic cryptomining titan in court. The cease and desist named Genesis’ Swiss parterners Swiss Gold Global in Zurich and its Hong Kong parent company. Instead of selling traditional shares or other securities, Genesis directly sells to users maintenance-free plans for a given amount of the network’s computing power as measured in thousand hashed per second (kilo hash per second or kH/s). As of today, these shares are all “sold out” on the website: Because of the…