Court orders Russian individual to pay 9 million rubles for mining activities in garages., 2026/04/17 09:50:11

The court in the city of Yelets, Lipetsk region, has granted the claim of the branch of PJSC “Rosseti Center” — “Lipetskenergo” and mandated the alleged owner of an illegal mining farm to pay nearly 9 million rubles to the energy company.

According to the lawsuit, the defendant connected to the electrical networks bypassing the metering devices to power the mining equipment located in two garages of the “Solnechny” cooperative. The volume of illegally consumed electricity is estimated at 8.9 million rubles. Additionally, the defendant is required to cover court costs amounting to 83,000 rubles.

The individual did not acknowledge the claim and asserts that he is not the owner of the garages where the ASIC miners were found. However, similar devices were previously discovered in his wife’s house — she paid 1.5 million rubles for electricity theft. Furthermore, the energy company managed to capture footage of the defendant opening the garages containing the underground farm with his key. 

The court found the evidence compelling and concluded that the defendant indeed “engaged in unauthorized consumption of electrical energy for the purpose of cryptocurrency mining.”

It was previously reported that the total damage from illegal mining in Russia for 2025 exceeded 4.5 billion rubles.