Since the beginning of last year, the Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM) has registered 17 criminal cases related to the illegal mining of digital assets. The amount of damage exceeded 1.3 billion tenge.
According to the agency's press service, illegal farms were most often discovered in Astana — 6 cases, and in Shymkent and Kostanay — 3 cases each. As part of the investigations, digital assets worth $642,000 were seized and confiscated.
It is noted that some of the illegal farms operated by stealing electricity — a total of five such cases were identified. The volume of stolen resources is comparable to the consumption of a large city. Complaints from residents about noise from the equipment have also been recorded.
It is noted that illegal electricity consumption damages the country's economic security, reducing the availability of resources for real businesses, industry, and social facilities.
At the same time, according to the State Revenue Committee, over the past three years, more than 17 billion tenge has been received into the budget from legal mining, which confirms the importance of regulating the sector.
The AFM reminded that mining in Kazakhstan is only permitted with a licence. Legal activity requires registration of equipment, concluding an energy supply contract, and complying with tax obligations. Illegal mining carries criminal liability.
Earlier, the AFM department for the East Kazakhstan region identified a case of illegal sale of electricity to miners amounting to more than 9 billion tenge.