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posted by mrpg on Thursday March 15 2018, @08:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the Florida-Citrus-Man dept.

A gentleman in the southeast orange-growing state was caught and accused of mining cryptocurrency at work, according to the Tampa Bay Times:

TAMPA — A Department of Citrus employee was arrested after he used state computers to produce virtual currency for himself, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Matthew McDermott, 51, of Davenport was the information technology manager for the Florida Department of Citrus, the agency that oversees the state's citrus industry... [H]e used several computers in the Department of Citrus to mine for virtual currency, which include bitcoin and litecoin.

He wasn't just mining--he was allegedly really, really into it, to the tune of tens of thousands of Department of Citrus dollars:

Utility bills for the department jumped by more than 40 percent between October 2017 and January 2017, at a cost of about $825... McDermott also spent more than $22,000 using a state purchasing card between July and December, [buying] 24 graphic processing units, the FDLE said.

"Grand Theft" and "Official Misconduct" were his charges upon arrest. With bail set at just $5,000 (less than 1 BTC), he probably made bail pretty quickly.

It seems that mining cryptocurrency is the new en vogue temptation scandal.

Also at The Week, whose story mentions the previous incident at Russian nuclear facilities.


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by cocaine overdose on Thursday March 15 2018, @10:14AM

    Bet his coworkers beat him to a pulp after he got out, for those sugary sweet bitcorns.

    And mining BTC and LTC? What, did he hear his grandson say how he made $20 doing nothing?
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