Not Quite Shawshank - Icelandic Man Jailed For Bitcoin Robbery

Reports surfaced yesterday about a group of seven criminals from Iceland who managed to get away with 350 computers used to mine Bitcoin who have now been given their jail time.

The total value of the Bitcoin mining computer and associated parts summed up to around $1 million. The men were then forced to pay damages since the equipment was never actually found.

A local news outlet, Visir reported that the criminals in question stole the mining equipment in December 2017 and January 2018. In addition to the computer, they also stole more than 800 graphics cards, 120 CPUs and 120 motherboards.

Sindri Por Stefansson is one of the sentenced men who gained recognition worldwide after he escaped imprisonment in Iceland last year and managed to catch a flight a Sweden with the countries Prime Minister.

Not quite the Shawshank Redemption

Stefansson was given a four and a half year sentence which was the harshest punishment of all the men out of the group.

The authorities who were looking into the theft of the mining computers had no idea where the stolen equipment could have been at first. But when Stefansson was detained in spring 2018. Whilst trying to find the stolen equipment, police tried to watch for surges in the electrical grid and even engaged with an idea provided by a psychic.

Stefansson was being dubbed as the ‘mastermind’ of the scheme by different media outlets despite not being charged or convicted. As reported by CryptoGlobe, this was only because he was held longer than any of the other suspects of the scheme.

Sogn prison was where Stefansson was being held but he managed to escape the penitentiary after escaping through a window and making his way to an airport.

I feel like it would have been a lot more interesting if he ‘scooped’ his way out of the prison instead…

Caught red-handed

Before he could get to Iceland, Stefansson was caught red-handed in the Netherlands. He told the New York Times that he regretted fleeing the nation because his mug shot was all over the news after landing in Sweden.

What I personally, find most interesting about this is the fact that it isn’t actually illegal to escape from a prison in Iceland. A Former Supreme Court Judge Jon Gunnlaugsson said “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.”

Not quite Shawshank, but still an interesting tale.

What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down below in the comments!