His wife saw fleeting figures lurking around their home. Suddenly, the restaurant’s front door blows open and Sindri Thor Stefansson enters, accompanied by a burst of frigid air and a gust of snow. Nausea rose up within him in waves as he made his rounds. Today, Bitcoin mines consume more energy than all of Iceland’s homes combined. But for now, Mick and Keith would have to wait: As one of the country’s most illustrious police chiefs, Kjartansson was in charge of cracking the case of the Big Bitcoin Heist. “Screaming, yelling, stealing, biting.” Around the age of six, he met his best friend and partner in crime, Hafthor Logi Hlynsson. The burglars also had to repay the police $116,332 for the legal costs of the investigation. “So I guess it’s my biggest yet.”. With scarves covering their faces, Karlsson and his brother drove up and started loading the computers into their car. He started a string of businesses: creating websites for car rental companies, selling protein pills online, even leasing warehouses to expand his marijuana crop. He also provided the thieves with guard uniforms and the alarm code. It clearly showed the used blue van Karlsson had bought. So I started asking around on the internet.”. Deep in debt, and with a child on the way, he blamed Stefansson. Only Stefansson chose to show his face to the cameras. On the day I visited, several stern guards sat before giant split-screen security monitors, watching over every inch of the facilities, inside and out. Then he and Jonasson stacked 28 brand-new “money machines” into their waiting van and raced away. Led by Sindri Thor Stefansson, the men behind Iceland’s Big Bitcoin Heist managed to escape with a $500,000 haul in hardware alone, Mark Seal reported in a recent Vanity Fair feature. And in return for their work, they generated vast fortunes for their owners. One night in late 2017, a man named Ivar Gylfason received a strange phone call. Almost half of 2020 college grads still looking for work, Deadly arrest of Black man seen in bodycam video, Texas carries out first execution in 10 months, FBI: Capitol rioters hit cops with metal knuckles, baton, Penn State to remove terms "sophomore" and "freshman", Dancers seek to rid ballet performances of Asian stereotypes, Maya Angelou and Sally Ride to be honored on quarters, Stacey Abrams on writing herself into the story – and history, LA nonprofit supports young photographers, Woman receives gift of motherhood after cancer diagnosis, Taiwan, long a COVID success story, sees record surge in cases, Israel's Iron Dome has blocked thousands of incoming rockets, Hamas lays down its terms as calls for a cease-fire get louder, Famed Darwin's Arch collapses due to erosion in Galapagos Islands, Village under water for decades emerging from an Italian lake, California Privacy/Information We Collect. In Bitcoin mining, every second counts. The price of a single bitcoin rocketed to nearly $20,000 late last year and then plunged early this year. “There was no security,” a guard tells me. Gylfason, apprehended at his home, confessed to his role. REYKJAVIK, Iceland — It has been more than four months since thieves pulled off the biggest heist in the history of Iceland, and the police here … “The first memory of us is going behind the counter at a shopping mall,” Stefansson says. They plowed their paper profits into foreign assets—real estate, fashion brands, soccer teams—only to go bust in the global financial crash of 2008. And now, to top it off, he was sick. Police there believe that… Genesis Farming, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mines, in the data center near Reykjavík. (“We did not chat,” Stefansson later said. They also seized his iPhone, which was shipped to Holland to be unlocked. Some 11 people were arrested, including a security guard, in what Icelandic media have dubbed the "Big Bitcoin Heist." While on the lam he wrote a letter that was published in Frettabladid, detailing what he claimed were human rights violations by the police. Then, during a 10-month stint in prison with Hlynsson, he managed to get clean. Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t.”, “If you were Mr. X,” I ask him, “how would you grade the Big Bitcoin Heist?”, “A masterpiece,” he says. “We stole a purse from an old woman who was working there.” Hlynsson, who was convicted of joining his childhood friend in the Bitcoin heist, has grown into a muscular, tattoo-covered drug smuggler and money launderer known as Haffi the Pink. “Are you a security guard at the Advania data center?” the caller demanded. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. They met at a friend’s house in Reykjavík to go over the plans. He had no idea his information would lead to a burglary, and they used him.”, Questioned by police, Stefansson and Karlsson insisted that they had absolutely nothing to do with the burglary. Stefansson was thrown in solitary for a month and grilled repeatedly by police, who pressured him to reveal the location of the stolen computers. There is a debate about whether Bitcoin mining is hurting or helping the country, but it is definitely putting the country of Iceland on the map of crypto investors. But the gang was learning as they went. REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Some 600 computers used to "mine" bitcoin and other virtual currencies have been stolen from data centers in Iceland in … "This is a grand theft on a scale unseen before," said Olafur Helgi Kjartansson, the police commissioner on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula, where two of the burglaries took place. “Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste.”. In their excitement, they took the fastest route: the Whale Fjord Tunnel, a 3.6-mile passage beneath the icy waters of the Hvalfjörður fjord. Then they were gone, along with 225 Bitcoin computers: enough to open their own mine and embark on a new life in Iceland’s new economy. But the true value of the computers was far greater. His dog barked in the middle of the night. Stefansson drove from Akureyri and studied the small metal building in the middle of nowhere. Then, in the new millennium, Iceland’s three biggest banks found a way to get rich quick off of foreign debt. In Iceland, it is not a crime to stage a prison break: The law recognizes that inmates, like all human beings, are naturally entitled to freedom, and thus cannot be punished for seeking it. “I just wish I had done it.”, — How one industry is bleeding Wall Street dry of talent— Ronan Farrow’s producer reveals how NBC killed its Weinstein story— Ivanka’s $360 million deal is raising eyebrows at the FBI— The big turn for Elizabeth Warren’s campaign— Why a leading neurocriminologist left Joker completely stunned— The Fox News movie’s uncanny depictions of the network’s drama— From the Archive: The real-life story of the security guard turned bombing suspect at the heart of Clint Eastwood’s latest movie. They also conversed on a Facebook page called Foruneytid, Icelandic for “the Fellowship,” a reference to Lord of the Rings. Stefansson asked Matthias Karlsson to buy a vehicle, and the conscientious day care worker came through with a cheap blue van, purchased on the Icelandic version of eBay. When he emerged, he was too weak to walk. By chance, Stefansson was on the same flight as Katrin Jakobsdottir, the prime minister of Iceland, who was sitting a few rows in front of him. Mr. X told Stefansson that he would give him 15 percent of the profits from as many Bitcoin computers as he could steal from data centers across Iceland. But “the judge did not extend the custody temporarily.”, The prison staff advised Stefansson that, technically, he was a free man: The order had expired at 4 p.m. and would not be extended until the next day. “Maybe the computers have been running the whole time,” Stefansson tells me. It’s possible that the machines are blinking away in a warehouse somewhere at this very moment, mining Bitcoin for the young men who stole them. But he had made a critical error. “We were so surprised! He was arrested in front of his in-laws’ house in Reykjavík, where police found his possessions loaded on a pallet in preparation for his getaway. “The judge made the decision to think the matter over” until the following morning, Stefansson later observed. He felt he was being followed. In January of 2018, over 600 computers valued at 2 million dollars were stolen from a bitcoin mining facility in Reykjavik, Iceland. One wintry day, a German cryptocurrency entrepreneur named Marco Streng stepped off a plane at Keflavik International Airport. Top, by Alex Telfer/Trunk Archive; bottom, by Andrew Testa/The New York Times/Redux. He called headquarters and was told to wait for backup. Weeks later 31-year-old Sindri Stefansson was caught and sent to a low-level prison. Finally, around 10 p.m., he jumped into his car and sped home, rushing straight to the bathroom. One of the world’s largest bitcoin hardware heists has occurred in Iceland. The warehouse at the local AVK Data Center suddenly needed more electricity—a lot more electricity—for something called Bitcoin. “It’s the biggest burglary in the history of Iceland,” Stefansson boasts of the Bitcoin heist. They already had enough computers to set up their own small Bitcoin mine and enjoy the proceeds. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bitcoin-heist-computers-stolen-in-iceland They were stealing the presses that print digital money. CASH MACHINES Jolted awake just before seven the next morning, he rushed to his car to return to work, only to find that someone had slashed his tires. Six years later, in 2014, a new bonanza arrived in the form of Bitcoins. It’s furnished with a comfy couch, a fluffy blanket, and a box of Kleenex in case of a tearful confession. “Maybe I know where they are. In that moment, he says, he experienced the adrenaline high he would spend his life chasing. The success of Streng’s operation, which grew into the world’s largest Bitcoin company, attracted other miners to Asbru. Five days later, on December 10, the Borealis Data Center told police that someone had tried and failed to break into their facility at Asbru, attempting to disable the alarm by gluing the security sensors. The International Monetary Fund pumped $2 billion into the economy to stave off an even greater disaster. Matthias Karlsson confessed to the Advania heist and was sentenced to two and a half years; his brother, Petur the Polish, received 18 months. Three different raids also accounted for the stolen bitcoin units December last year from a store near Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland. His job was to keep watch over two hangar-like buildings that held rows of small, box-like computers, the size of two cartons of cigarettes, stacked in towers as far as the eye could see. “Many Icelanders believe in elves and trolls,” says Kjartansson, the police chief. “We opened the door and everything was empty!” she recalls. “I was watching his movements,” he says. Iceland Bitcoin Heist Suspect Flees the Country by Plane In Iceland, a group of people recently stole 600 ASIC miners, and the police launched an investigation and made several arrests. Only two weeks after the heist, the arrests began. And in a country with almost no crime, there was little need to spend money on extensive security measures. Like most German kids, he recalls, he had only seen Iceland on TV, which glorified the frozen nation as “something from another planet.” Now, driving from the airport to the old naval base at Asbru, he encountered a “ghost town” pockmarked by “car rental places and trash yards.” To Streng, it looked like the new cryptocurrency frontier. It has been hugely volatile, posting some dizzying intra-day rises and falls over the past year or so. The woman—a feisty, 66-year-old entrepreneur—had been convinced by her two “computer nerd” sons to give them $50,000 to open the mine. “I am not one of them.”. The police, assisted by Interpol, mobilized in an international manhunt. (His attorney refers to his interrogation as “torture.”) Residents of Iceland began cheering the Bitcoin bandits, who were well on their way to becoming folk heroes. Ólafur Helgi Kjartansson was sitting in his office in Reykjavík, belting out “Sympathy for the Devil.” In his spare time, Kjartansson follows the Rolling Stones to concerts around the world; he considers himself the band’s number one fan in Iceland. The caller abruptly hung up. And the mysterious Mr. X that Stefansson continues to blame for the crimes? The relative, it turned out, owed money to Stefansson’s friend, Haffi the Pink. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Iceland Tag - CoinGeek. Some 11 people were arrested, including a security guard, in what Icelandic media have dubbed the "Big Bitcoin Heist." Let us know what you think about this subject in the comment section below. Top, from Iceland Monitor; bottom, from Fréttabladid. Last December three separate raids accounted for the stolen units, from a warehouse near Iceland’s capital city Reykjavik. Stefansson had been tracking the routine of the security guard who would be on duty that night. The police seemed slow to investigate, and the burgled companies preferred that the crimes stay quiet. (“It’s a small island,” Stefansson observes.) One night at his keyboard, in the summer of 2017, Stefansson says he made a connection that would transform both him and his country. Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story. Thieves steal 600 powerful bitcoin-mining computers in huge heist In Iceland, police are hoping a power surge will lead them to the criminals' stash. Three of four burglaries took place in December and a fourth took place in January, but authorities did not make the news public earlier in hopes of tracking down the thieves. “I’ve never seen violence in them. “Making money while you sleep.”, “It just has to be done,” he told himself. “You don’t say no to this guy,” Stefansson says. Then came another gift: The motion detectors at the data center weren’t even connected to the alarm system. But wherever there is money, crime is sure to follow. A window was open, to cool the computers. The ‘Big Bitcoin Heist’ further confirms that bitcoin miners need to keep data facilities secure and maintain a tight ship. “I wanted to start Bitcoin mining,” he says, “because it is very similar to growing cannabis. Major crime is almost nonexistent; in 2018, there was only one murder in all of Iceland. Large photograph by Andrew Testa/The New York Times/Redux. Bitcoin heist suspect flees Iceland on flight carrying PM: state broadcaster . Iceland had become the world’s leader in Bitcoin mining based in part on its reputation of being virtually crime-free. “Something’s wrong!” he told her. Stefansson (32) is considered the mastermind of what Iceland calls the “Big Bitcoin Heist,” and many know him as being a famous thief. Someone was targeting the security guard. “The data centers didn’t want this getting out, because it could affect their talks with foreign investors,” says one observer. In what has been coined the “big bitcoin heist,” 600 computers used for bitcoin mining have been stolen from data centers across Iceland. On the night of December 5, 2017, as flurries of sleet and snow buffeted Iceland, Stefansson and his crew broke into the Algrim Consulting data center at Asbru. And so, after three days of “conversation,” they were free to leave—told, in essence, have a nice day. While being detained in the Borgarnes investigation, Karlsson lost his job as a day care worker. They were stealing the digital presses used to print money in the age of cryptocurrency. Determined to turn his life around, he got married, took a job driving a postal truck, and graduated with a degree in computer science from the University of Iceland, where he was voted Prankster of the Year. “I’m an old bitch,” she tells me in her thick Icelandic accent, a heavy woolen cap pulled low over her white hair. The owner called the police, who reviewed footage from a CCTV camera at a nearby hardware store. He recognized one of the men in the car—Sindri Stefansson—who sat alongside a man wearing a hoodie, and another who spoke in a gruff Eastern European accent. “Cold,” he says, removing his heavy woolen cap and shaking the snow out of his thick beard before sitting down for a hunk of Icelandic beef. “We never call it interrogation,” an officer tells me. The friend was working as an electrician in the small town of Borgarnes, on Iceland’s western coast, and he had noticed something strange. “You’re stealing machines that make money,” he remembers thinking. This is Iceland’s “Big Bitcoin Heist”, and it’s still breaking news. Later, I am given a tour of the “conversation room” where Karlsson was questioned. “They were rough!” Stefansson says. First there was the brawn: Matthias Jon Karlsson, a quiet, husky guy who worked in a home for special-needs kids, and his younger brother, Petur Stanislav, nicknamed “the Polish.” Next, the beauty: Viktor “the Cutie” Ingi Jonasson, a good-looking guy with a degree as a systems administrator. “I’m ready to go to prison for this. But if the stolen equipment is used for its original purpose -- to create new bitcoins -- the thieves could turn a massive profit in an untraceable currency without ever selling the items. Sindri Thor Stefansson, the primary suspect in the "big Bitcoin heist," said he will be bringing his 'illegal' two-and-a-half month detention to … Iceland is the best country to mine Bitcoin right now. The powerful computers, which have not yet been found, are worth almost $2 million. First published on March 3, 2018 / 9:49 AM. Rankings. “Give us the info—or else,” the men demanded. Copyright © 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. “It’s just amazing that there are computers that make money,” he says. Sean Hollister This would never happen in Iceland!”. “I shouldn’t say no security,” he adds hastily. There was cheap geothermal energy, literally rising from the earth, to power them. Stefansson denied any involvement in the heists. Also see: To the Bottom: Cryptocurrency Exchanges Seem Locked in Fee Rat Race This time they tried to climb through a window. For years, the country’s economy was centered around fishing and aluminum smelting. Police tracking the stolen computers are monitoring electric consumption across the country in hopes the thieves will show their hand, according to an industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media. The alarm sounded, and they fled. While the courts have concluded that Stefansson organized the heist, he insists that he was directed by the shadowy Mr. X. “Regular people don’t comprehend all it does. THE FUGITIVES © 2018 The Associated Press. About 600 computer servers used to mine bitcoin were stolen in Iceland in a series of large-scale robberies in December and January, according to police.. “They were punishing me for not giving up the computers.”. The freshest-and most essential-updates from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. This being Iceland, someone had even left a ladder nearby. 2 Min Read. Commercial miners arrived from Asia and Eastern Europe. “It’s a calm space,” Detective Helgi Petur Ottensen assures me. A judge at the Reykjanes District Court on Friday ordered two people to remain in custody. This being Iceland, someone had even left a ladder nearby. They fanned out in squad cars, boats, and helicopters. House approves January 6 commission despite GOP opposition, Hamas lays down its terms as calls for a ceasefire get louder, Family of Andrew Brown Jr. to file federal lawsuit. When the banks defaulted on $85 billion in debt, Iceland’s currency collapsed and unemployment soared. “There is a mine in there,” the friend told Stefansson. “I am proud of him for standing up for his rights and protesting that he was illegally held in jail,” says Stefansson’s accomplice, Viktor “the Cutie” Jonasson. It was the fifth cryptocurrency data center in Iceland to be hit in two months. He was the lone guard at the Advania data center, housed in a former U.S. naval base not far from the Reykjavík airport in Iceland. The walls are covered with images of the Northern Lights and the buds of Icelandic flowers poking up through the snowy tundra. In a panic, he called the mine’s owner back in Borgarnes. Ottensen was impressed with how nice the suspects seemed. If Mr. X does exist, he remains at large, as do the 550 stolen Bitcoin computers. “We didn’t have anything else on them,” the detective says, “so they were released.”, But the Bitcoin thieves were far from finished. 2 Min Read. Then the crypto-crooks showed up. Unusually high energy usage might reveal the whereabouts of the illegal bitcoin mine. The case has been dubbed by local media as the "Big Bitcoin Heist". They followed leads as far away as China. The alarm system hadn’t yet arrived. "Being part of the financial system brings enormous privileges, but with them great responsibilities," Carney said. The thieves weren’t robbing banks. “The police broke down a lot of doors looking for the computers,” says Stefansson. Viktor Jonasson was “polite.” Karlsson was “very clean, calm.” The electrician who tipped off Stefansson about the Bitcoin mine was “just a pawn. “Best in the fucking world!” Haffi texted back. And a window way up high had conveniently been left open, to let the frigid air cool the red-hot computers. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rely on the blockchain, the name given to the public, distributed ledgers which track the coins' ownership. It was cryptocurrency, ironically, that helped save Iceland after the bankers bankrupted it. Haffi the Pink, Viktor the Cutie, and the security guard, Ivar Gylfason, got sentences ranging from 15 to 20 months. By Reuters Staff. “Why go to all of the expense and effort to start your own Bitcoin mine,” Mr. X asked, “when you can get a head start into the business by stealing computers from the competition?”. The total take: $2 million in tech gear. Braced against the arctic cold on this January evening, the security guard was feeling sicker by the minute. And they descended on buildings where electricity usage spiked to Bitcoin levels. What do you think about the Iceland mine thieves? The night shift at the data center was the worst, the country plunged into darkness 19 hours a day by a stingy sun. There wasn’t much to see. Everyone except Gylfason is appealing their convictions, and all remain free until their appeals are resolved. Then, according to police, there were the brains: Stefansson’s childhood friend and brother-in-crime, Haffi the Pink, a seasoned drug smuggler with a long rap sheet, who helped organize the jobs from where he was living in Thailand and Spain. I’m not going to pretend.” Now, she and her sons raced to the mine. In a speech to the Scottish Economics conference, Carney said a "global speculative mania" has "encouraged a proliferation of new cryptocurrencies" and said they should be held to the "same standards" as the rest of the financial system. Iceland police arrested 11 people who were involved in four burglaries in December and January involving the Bitcoin miners. It was like an assignment.”, Together, the five men were an Icelandic version of the “Ocean’s 11 gang,” says Alla Ámundadóttir, who covered the case for the country’s major newspaper, Frettabladid. The trio brazenly posed for a picture in front of the De Bijenkorf department store wearing triumphant smiles and sunglasses. In late 2017, a group of thieves successfully broke into Advania data center in Iceland, stealing 550 Bitcoin computers. The Sogn prison, where Stefansson escaped. When Gylfason declined, he was escorted into a dark Mazda outside his house. He worked the night shift, which meant intermittent inspections from dusk to dawn, patrolling the grounds for any signs of trouble. Then Stefansson got a call from someone he had studied computer science with at the university. In Edinburgh on Friday, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney launched a withering attack on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and urged regulators around the world to monitor them in the same way as other financial assets. The computers were gone, and there was no way to trace if they were being used to mine cryptocurrency. He communicated with his team via Telegram, a service that enables encrypted, self-destructing messages. His rap sheet soon included 200 cases of petty crime. But Stefansson’s next step made headlines worldwide: He used a loophole in the law to escape from prison. Flooded with cash, the banks grew nearly seven times larger than the national economy. Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy. “It was not like the old days, when I was younger and doing it for fun, adrenaline. One of the suspects has now fled the country to Sweden, although it … They also descended on Stefansson, who had sold his home and was preparing to move to Spain with his wife and kids. Just after noon, the guard, who had gone back to sleep, awoke to the sound of police officers pounding on his door. The computers, still missing, are worth $2m (£1.45m). “I was a naughty boy,” he recalls. The lone police officer patrolling the area had gone home for the night. The total prison population for the entire country seldom rises above 180. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”. Citation: Bitcoin heist: 600 powerful computers stolen in Iceland (2018, March 2) retrieved 8 May 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2018-03-bitcoin-heist-powerful-stolen-iceland.html Mastermind Who Planned Iceland's Biggest Bitcoin Heist Jailed for 4.5 Years Last year, Sindri Stefansson was arrested for his part in what has been described as the biggest heist Iceland has seen – over $2 million worth of Bitcoin mining equipment stolen in an operation that left police baffled. The next morning, one of the mine’s investors logged in from Germany to check the overnight action from the data center. Because a robbery of a few hundred machines will cost a bitcoin mining operation a ton of money. The electrician in the Borgarnes burglary had worked so well, they decided to seek an insider at another data center—someone who could be persuaded to give them all of the mine’s security details. “All the proofs lay on the table,” the chief says. But before he could make a move, the gang got a lucky break: The guard suddenly raced home, diverted by diarrhea, and never returned. Authorities in Iceland have detained 11 people in what local media call the “Big Bitcoin Heist.” Thieves reportedly made off with $2 million worth of Bitcoin-mining hardware from data centers on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula. “I just needed more.”, The answer, he decided, lay in the unsecured buildings at the old naval base, packed with zillion-dollar money machines. Born and raised in the small town of Akureyri, he committed his first breaking and entering in kindergarten, smashing a window at school and reaching inside to open the door. Everything is related: electricity, air, heat, cooling systems. Rental car forms showed he had rented the second car used in the Advania theft. Nonexistent. The case might have ended there, an obscure series of crimes in a cold and remote country. “It doesn’t make us Mafia.”, Stefansson began driving nearly six hours from his home in Akureyri to the old naval base outside Reykjavík to scout the premises. Security? "Everything points to this being a highly organized crime.". Within six months, Streng transformed an abandoned building on the former base—an old U.S. military lacquering garage—into Iceland’s first Bitcoin mine. Whoever cracked the code first received a Bitcoin in return—a payment, at its peak, worth $17,000 for just a few minutes of computing time. Haffi posted the image on Instagram and tagged it #teamsindri. While he had instructed his crew to delete everything from their phones, he hadn’t deleted his own messages. Iceland’s now-infamous bitcoin miner thief has reportedly been arrested. Why is the price of Bitcoin dropping like a stone? March 6, 2018. After his arrest, Stefansson was held for three months as a “resident” in an “open” prison in Sogn, where inmates are housed in private rooms with flat-screen TVs and cell phone privileges. But Stefansson managed to stay one step ahead. uncanny depictions of the network’s drama. Then he catches himself. Currently, this is Iceland's "Big Bitcoin Heist." With its cheap geothermal energy and low crime rate, Iceland has become the world’s leading miner of digital currency. On January 16, 2018, the job commenced. This time, with the future of the cryptocurrency industry at stake, police dispensed with the “conversation room.” Gone were the cozy couch and the comfy blanket.
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