Paraguayan law enforcement authorities have accused seven employees of Paraguay’s National Electricity Authority (ANDE) of creating illegal bitcoin mining farms. ANDE assures that it is helping the prosecutor’s office investigate the incident.

ANDE President Felix Sosa said that his internal audit department is already conducting audits of the organization. For some time now, ANDE employees have not been involved in connecting to power sources, delegating these responsibilities to third-party contractors.

Local authorities have been fighting underground mining farms since December – more than 70 farms that consume electricity from the network without permission have already been disconnected from the network. In early June, ANDE discovered a large illegal farm in Salto del Guaira, from whose owners 2,738 mining devices were confiscated. In May, ANDE conducted a joint raid with the police, seizing about 600 ASIC miners from local residents.

ANDE’s actions have drawn criticism from Joaquin Morinigo, founder and CEO of local crypto consultancy Cryptopy. This is not the first time that ANDE itself has been rumored to be involved in illegal mining, the businessman says.

“Since 2018, we have been hearing that corrupt ANDE officials are asking for bribes, extorting money and creating secret connections in different parts of the country. ANDE has problems with corruption,”
wrote Morinigo on social network X.

In May, the Paraguayan authorities introduced a bill according to which violators could face imprisonment for up to ten years for illegal mining of cryptocurrencies.