Iceland’s “Bitcoin Bandits” Sentenced in Big Crypto Mining Theft Case Worth Nearly $800,000 USD

It has been reported that the primary suspects in the “Big Bitcoin Heist” of 2018 have been sentenced to prison terms following the much-reported heist that saw them steal over $750,000 worth of crypto mining equipment.

What Was The ‘Big Bitcoin Heist’?

On January 16, 2018, the four men hired three more individuals in order to rob the Advania mines. The crew was able to steal 225 fully functional Bitmain mining rigs with the help from an ‘inside man’ and allegedly wore security uniforms. This particular heist was the crew’s biggest and the robbery reportedly took hours. The ‘inside man’ gave the thieves a security access code and a layout of Advania’s floor plan. Iceland police arrested two members of the gang on February 1, 2018, with an illegal stun gun and more than a half ounce of cocaine. From that point, one of the suspects purportedly turned on Stefansson and his gang, so the police were able to track down each member of the group following the first two arrests.

The first of the individuals arrested include Sindry Thor Stefansson, who was originally arrested in April for the theft of mining equipment in the country. Based on translated court documents, another six individuals were tied into the charges, which is a total of ten criminal counts. The full charges include “possession of weapons, cocaine, and theft of over $2 million USD worth of mining computers and equipment.”

What added a twist to the drama was when Stefansson escaped from prison. He was placed in the low-security prison a little over a week ago though he has been in custody. He fled through a window before taking the approximately 60-mile trek to Keflavík International Airport, where he used a stolen passport to board a passenger plane bound for Sweden and where security footage spotted him. Interestingly, he was on the same flight as the Prime Minister of Iceland.

The Final Sentance

All in all, seven men were sentenced for the heist, with Sindri Þór receiving the heaviest sentence. The computers were never found and the men were sentenced to pay Advania, the company that owned the computers, 33 million ISK(close to $270,634) in damages.

Stefansson was not charged additionally for his attempted escape and just four and a half years in Prison. Hafthór Logi Hlynsson will serve 20 months and Matthías Jón Karlsson was sentenced to two-and-a-half years. Both Peter Stanislav Karlsson and Viktor Ingi Jónasson will have to spend 18 months behind bars while the others get lighter punishments.