Gate News message: On April 3, the People’s Court of Honggang District in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, recently released a first-instance judgment. Two men were sentenced for theft for illegally tapping oilfield high-voltage power lines to steal electricity for Bitcoin mining.
The principal offender, Zhang, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 50,000 yuan. The accomplice, Zhao, was sentenced to 4 years and 10 months in prison and fined 20,000 yuan.
The judgment shows that in September 2024, Zhang illegally tapped the high-voltage power lines of an oilfield in a Daqing oil production plant. Inside a pigsty he rented that had been abandoned, he installed 24 Bitcoin mining machines. Later in December of the same year, Zhao joined in while knowing that Zhang was stealing electricity, and separately purchased 12 additional mining machines. Together, the two operated a total of 36 mining machines.
In August 2025, the two were apprehended by the public security authorities. After calculation, Zhang stole 565,375.2 kilowatt-hours of electricity, valued at 438,580.52 yuan; Zhao stole 468,060 kilowatt-hours of electricity, valued at 363,750.78 yuan. The court also ordered Zhang to make restitution of 438,580.52 yuan, and Zhao to bear joint restitution responsibility for 363,750.78 yuan of that amount. The mining machines involved in the case and related equipment were handled by the public security authorities in accordance with the law.
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