Man Ran Cryptocurrency Mining Operation Out Of County Office: DA

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — A Mattituck man was arrested and charged with running 46 cryptocurrency mining devices out of Suffolk County offices — and costing the county thousands of dollars in electricity fees, District Attorney Tim Sini said Wednesday.

Christopher Naples, 42, a Suffolk County information technology supervisor, reportedly ran the cryptocurrency mining operation out of county offices over the past seven months, Sini said.

Naples was arrested and charged with public corruption, a felony; third-degree grand larceny, a felony; computer trespass, a felony; and official misconduct, a misdemeanor, Sini said.

Naples, who serves as assistant manager of information technology operations for the Suffolk County Clerk’s Office, has been employed by Suffolk County since 2000, Sini said.

An investigation by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office’s public integrity bureau revealed that since at least February, Naples has allegedly been using county electricity, internet access, and other resources to run a mining operation for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency out of the County Center, located at 300-310 Center Drive in Riverhead, Sini said.

Investigators executed search warrants at the County Center on Aug. 19 and seized 46 cryptocurrency mining devices, which were found hidden in six rooms throughout the building underneath removable floorboards, on top of or inside server racks, and inside an unused electrical wall panel, Sini said.

One of the rooms housed "critically important" computer servers, secure data storage systems and communications equipment for the county government, and when investigators entered the room, an alarm was going off that indicated the temperature was too high, Sini said.

“Within hours of the devices being shut down, the temperature in the room dropped 20 degrees. So not only was this operation being paid for with thousands of dollars of taxpayer money, but it also put the county’s infrastructure at risk," Sini said.

Naples also had to bypass the county’s internet security protocols in order to get the devices online, which could have potentially jeopardized the security of the county’s network, Sini said.

At least 10 of the machines had been running since February at a total cost of more than $6,000 to the county, according to an audit of the building’s energy bills, Sini said. The investigation is ongoing and the devices are estimated to cost $4,200 per month each in electricity, Sini said.

Naples was arraigned on the charges Wednesday in Southampton Town Justice Court before Justice Barbara Wilson and was released on his own recognizance, Sini said.

He is represented by attorney William Keahon and is due back in court on Sept. 16, Sini said.

Keahon did not immediately return a request for comment.

If convicted of the top count, Naples faces a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison, Sini said.

“Mining cryptocurrency requires an enormous amount of resources, and miners have to navigate how to cover all of those electricity and cooling costs,” Sini said. “This defendant found a way to do it; unfortunately, it was on the backs of taxpayers."