Authorities seek arrest of man who allegedly mined crypto under a high school and stole $18,000 of electricity

• In December 2021, a town found a secret crypto mining operation underneath a Massachusetts high school.
• Police are looking to arrest Nadeam Nahas, the town's former assistant facilities director.
• Nahas failed to appear in court for an arraignment on Thursday.

Authorities are looking to arrest a former city employee in Massachusetts who set up a secret crypto mining operation under a high school two years ago, according to reports from local news outlets.

Nadeam Nahas, the former assistant facilities director for the town of Cohasset, was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on charges of vandalizing a school and stealing $18,000 worth of electricity. But he failed to appear in court, and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

The town discovered 11 computers, electrical wiring, and ductwork in the crawl space of Cohasset High School in December 2021. 

Local authorities launched a probe, and the equipment was also examined by the US Coast Guard Investigative Service and the Department of Homeland Security, NBC reported.

After a three-month investigation, Nahas was identified as a suspect and a criminal complaint was issued. He resigned from his position in March 2022.

According to court documents, authorities concluded a cryptocurrency mining operation was "unlawfully attached to the school electrical system," and alleged Nahas stole $17,492.57 of electricity from the school by running the computers nonstop from April to December of 2021.  

It's been harder to mine cryptocurrencies, with more miners in the blockchain increasing competition. Bitcoin's mining difficulty reached a record high of 39 trillion hashes in February, according to data from CoinWarz, which indicates more computing power and electricity is needed to mine the token.