December 1, 2022
BANGKOK – The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) conducted a lightning operation and inspected 41 places that used illegal electricity connections for crypto-mining in Greater Bangkok.
The DSI held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the outcome of the “Electrical Shock” operation to search 41 commercial buildings in Greater Bangkok.
Previous investigation by the department had found evidence of investors searching for commercial buildings in Greater Bangkok for crypto-mining.
The DSI requested a search warrant from the Criminal Court to inspect these buildings.
DSI searched for evidence of electricity theft and seized more than 2,000 crypto-mining tools worth around 400 million baht.
Around 100 crypto-mining tools were found in each building. These tools were connected to electric cables illegally without an electricity meter so the electricity bill is considerably lower than the actual cost.
The electricity cost incurred by the suspects was around 300 baht to 2,000 baht per month, while the actual cost should have been around 500,000 baht per spot.
The DSI estimated that the Metropolitan Electricity Authority had incurred losses of around 20 million baht per month, or about 250 million baht per year.
The DSI said it would coordinate with the Customs Department to check whether these mining tools were imported legally.