Armenian law enforcement authorities suspect a 22-year-old citizen of stealing $1,046,000 from the sale of equipment for cryptocurrency mining.
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In October last year, the suspect met with a potential buyer and offered him to purchase the Z9 mini ASIC miner, the News-Armenia news agency reported citing the Investigative Committee.
Due to the lack of space for installing the equipment, the buyer agreed to temporarily leave the miner to the seller. The latter promised to install it on the territory of the plant, and for using the miner the owner received a certain amount every month.
Later, the suspect persuaded the buyer to purchase supposedly more efficient equipment. By mid-February, the victim transferred a total of $811,000, part of the amount in Armenian drams. During this period, the alleged fraudster transferred $21 thousand to his account.
Subsequently, the suspect ceased monthly payments and stopped contacting. The buyer never saw the new equipment.
Law enforcement authorities have already opened a criminal case on the fact of fraud on an especially large scale. During the investigation, it turned out that there were other victims.
Recall, last year Armenia announced the creation of a free economic zone with a data center for mining and opened a mining farm with three thousand servers for mining Bitcoin and Ethereum.