The High Court’s Taichung branch has upheld a lower court sentencing which had ordered the employees of a cosmetic surgery clinic to pay NT$33.48 million (US$1.06 million) to Taiwan Power (Taipower) after they were found guilty of stealing electricity to mine cryptocurrency.
An investigation found that the clinic’s owners, a man surnamed Cheng (鄭) and his wife, surnamed Su (蘇), had since 2021 been renting rooms in commercial buildings and private residences in Taichung, launched eight stations, and purchased about 800 computer units to run around the clock in their cryptomining operation, court documents showed.
Cheng and Su had acquired 27 bitcoins, worth about NT$25 million in total, but stole about NT$76 million in electricity, according to court filings.
Photo: Taipei Times
The couple hired two employees, surnamed Hsu (徐) and Huang (黃), to monitor the eight stations, the filings showed.
When investigators raided two of the stations, they found wires partially melted due to constant power consumption, posing a fire hazard — one in a building also housing a cram school — and prosecutors called the two stations “ticking time bombs,” they showed.
The defendants appealed a lower court’s ruling that found them guilty of several offenses.
The High Court upheld the decision, finding the four guilty of theft and other offenses, and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from one year and six months to two years.
Taipower filed a separate civil claim and, after deducting what Cheng and Su had already paid, sought NT$33.48 million in compensation from the two employees.
During the court proceedings, Hsu said he was merely a regular employee and denied any involvement in the electricity theft, adding that the responsibility should lie with the employer.
Huang said he was also just a worker and initially unaware of the electricity theft, adding that after finding out about it, he resigned and exposed the operation.
The High Court branch said that even if the two employees were initially unaware of the nature of their duties when they were first employed, they monitored the mining operation for more than six months and did not immediately stop their involvement after discovering it, therefore it rejected their appeal.
The ruling can be appealed.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
ENHANCING EFFICIENCY: The apron can accommodate 16 airplanes overnight at Taoyuan airport while work on the third runway continues, the transport minister said A new temporary overnight parking apron at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to start operating on Friday next week to boost operational efficiency while the third runway is being constructed, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The apron — one of the crucial projects in the construction of the third runway — can accommodate 16 aircraft overnight at the nation’s largest international airport, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told reporters while inspecting the new facility yesterday morning. Aside from providing the airport operator with greater flexibility in aircraft parking during the third runway construction,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS