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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, Informative) by krishnoid on Thursday March 15 2018, @10:16AM (7 children)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Thursday March 15 2018, @10:16AM (#652875)

    McDermott also spent more than $22,000 using a state purchasing card between July and December, [buying] 24 graphic processing units, the FDLE said.

    I'll bet you half the delta on those cards [arstechnica.com] the department could turn around and sell them for a nice profit over what the card was charged for (if they act quickly).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 15 2018, @10:41AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 15 2018, @10:41AM (#652881)

    And then pay tax on the income, and calculate costs of electrify and pay someone a working wage to do this and accounting and legal fees....is it worth it?

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday March 15 2018, @01:30PM (3 children)

      by Immerman (3985) on Thursday March 15 2018, @01:30PM (#652924)

      Electricity is a sunk cost, as is the purchase of the cards. At this point it's a question of how much of the wasted wealth an be recovered. So is $22,000 plus appreciation worth the wages and accounting of selling them? I'd guess probably yes.

      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 15 2018, @06:15PM (1 child)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday March 15 2018, @06:15PM (#653033) Journal

        Electricity is a sunk cost

        No it isn't! You pay more if you use more. That's the opposite of a sunk cost.

        • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday March 15 2018, @08:13PM

          by Immerman (3985) on Thursday March 15 2018, @08:13PM (#653088)

          Presumably they're no longer running the bitcoin miner - so the electricity already used is a sunk cost, along with every other expense that has already been incurred. Electricity used today is an ongoing expense - electricity used yesterday is a sunk cost.

      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 15 2018, @08:55PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday March 15 2018, @08:55PM (#653104)

        is $22,000 plus appreciation worth the wages and accounting of selling them?

        In a sane organization: yes. In the State bureaucracy, it might cost $22,000 in meetings and deliberations to decide where the recovered funds and profits (if any) actually go.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday March 15 2018, @06:27PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday March 15 2018, @06:27PM (#653037)

    If it had been aprivate company, they could have organized a nice game tournament as their next team-building exercise.

  • (Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday March 16 2018, @07:40AM

    by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Friday March 16 2018, @07:40AM (#653440) Homepage Journal

    Very interesting post! Thanks!

    --
    jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A