A group of seven Icelandic criminals who managed to steal a total of 350 computers used to mine bitcoin were recently handed jail sentences, according to the Reykjavik Grapevine.
The total value of the bitcoin mining computers and associated parts totalled nearly $1 million. The men were forced to pay damages since the equipment was never found.
Visir reported how the criminals, who stole the mining equipment in December 2017 and January 2018, also took more than 800 graphics cards, 120 motherboards, and 120 CPU’s.
One of the sentenced men, Sindri Por Stefansson, gained international notoriety after escaping imprisonment in Iceland last year and managing to catch a flight to Sweden with the nation’s prime minister.
A Movie Worthy Escape Saga
Stefansson, who was handed a four-and-a-half-year sentence, received the heaviest punishment in the group.
Police investigating the theft of the mining computers originally had no idea where the stolen equipment was, until they detained Stefansson in the spring of 2018. In their efforts to locate the stolen equipment, police tried to watch for surges in the electrical grid and even engaged with an idea provided by a psychic.
According to the New York Times, media started to label him as the “mastermind” of the scheme even though he was neither charged nor convicted, apparently only because he was held longer than any of the other questioned suspects.
Stefansson was held at the open Sogn prison but managed to escape the penitentiary by escaping through a window and making his way to an airport.
Eventually Arrested And Sent Back To Iceland
Stefansson was arrested in the Netherlands before extradition to Iceland. He told the New York Times he regretted fleeing the country because his mug shot was all over the news upon landing in Sweden.
Interestingly, it is in fact not illegal to escape from prison in Iceland. Former Supreme Court Judge Jon Gunnlaugsson remarked how “our system supposes that a person who has been deprived of his freedom will try to regain it… “it’s the responsibility of prison authorities to keep him there.”
Speaking to the New York Times, Stefansson said that his arrest for the robberies came two days before he was set to start a new life in Spain with his family.
