According to police, a town official in the US state of Massachusetts was operating an illicit cryptocurrency mining operation out of a crawl space beneath a school.
In court on Friday, 39-year-old Nadeam Nahas, an assistant facilities director in Cohasset, entered a not-guilty plea.
Just outside of Boston, Cohasset High School was vandalized, and he is accused of using electricity fraudulently.
Cryptocurrency is a type of digital money that can be "mined" using specialized computer processors.
Such mining consumes a significant amount of electricity because it requires complex computer calculations to verify transactions.
According to Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley in a statement to the BBC, authorities were first made aware of the potential crypto-mining operation in December 2021.
The director of facilities at Cohasset High School, according to Mr. Quigley, found the operation operating out of a remote crawl space beneath the school.
Detectives spoke with the director, who claimed that while performing a routine inspection of the school, he discovered electrical wires, temporary ductwork, and numerous computers that appeared out of place, Mr. Quigley said.
Police said when investigators found computers in the crawl space, they discovered they were being used in a cryptocurrency mining operation that had been forcibly plugged into the school's electrical system.
Police identified the suspect as Mr. Nahas following a three-month investigation with the Department of Homeland Security and the US Coast Guard's assistance.
According to court documents obtained by the Boston Globe, the mining operation used electricity at the high school for a total cost of about $17,500 (£14,600) from April to December 2021.
From January 2021 until his resignation at the beginning of last year, Mr. Nahas worked for the Town of Cohasset.
The Cohasset Public Schools district declined to comment when the BBC contacted them and instead directed them to the relevant police statement.
The district claimed in a statement provided to CBS News that it had assisted law enforcement with their investigation at all times.
