An executive who up until recently oversaw the IT department at a government agency in Florida was arrested and fired from the job after it was learned that he had been investing public funds into a cryptocurrency mining operation he used to fatten his own pockets.
Authorities were led to 51-year-old Matthew McDermott after an investigation into bitcoin's public ledger traced investigators back to unusual activity from the Florida Department of Citrus manager. It was at that point discovered that as the department's information technology head, McDermott, had been zapping the budget he was assigned for the maintenance of the state's $9 billion citrus farming industry.
Via a credit card assigned to him by the department, McDermott reportedly purchased $22,000 worth of graphics processing units that he'd then go on to use to mine for bitcoin, litecoin, and other cryptocurrencies. In addition to buying hardware with stolen tax dollars, the coin mining process reportedly ran up the utility bill at the department by 40 percent between the months of October 2017 and January 2018.
McDermott now faces grand theft and other official misconduct charges for his participation in an illegal cryptocurrency mining pool. His bail had been set at $5,000 upon being booked.
Source: complex.com
