United States prosecutors charges man for illegal cryptojacking operation

Prosecutors in the United States have indicted a Nebraska native Charles O. Parks III, also known as CP30 for carrying out an illegal cryptojacking operation. According to the report by the United States prosecutors, CP30 allegedly defrauded two popular cloud computing firms of about $3.5 million worth of resources to mine digital assets of nearly $1 million.

United States prosecutors indict Charles O. Parks

According to the report, the Nebraska native illegally used both company’s resources to mine several digital assets including Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero. Cryptojacking is a term used to describe the illegal use of a firm’s computing power or electricity to mine digital assets. Hackers make use of different forms of malware to tap small amounts of resources from a network of computers of unsuspecting users or companies.

Parks was arrested on April 13 in Nebraska and is set to make a first appearance in court on April 16. He will be charged with money laundering, wire fraud, and engaging in unlawful monetary activities in connection with the cryptojacking scheme. With the counts against him, he faces up to 50 years in prison. The United States prosecutors noted that Parks carried out his activities from January to August 2021.

According to the indictment, Parks created and used many names, corporate affiliations, and email addresses in his scheme. The report noted that he specifically used emails tied to accounts of domains such as ‘MultiMillionaire LLC’ and ‘CP30 LLC’ to sign up for several accounts with the cloud computing companies. This way, he was able to gain access to a large amount of processing power and storage without payment.

Prosecutors’ actions and charges

The report said that after getting access to the enormous computing power, he used to mine the cryptocurrencies. The report noted that he tricked the companies into giving him extra benefits and privileges. The indictment noted that he got “elevated levels of cloud computing services.” However, when the service providers started to question him about payments and unpaid subscriptions, he deferred billing accommodations.

The report stated that Parks went through several methods to hide the trail of the money. “Parks converted and laundered the cryptocurrency proceeds through cryptocurrency exchanges, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, an online payment provider, and traditional bank accounts, to disguise the audit trail and disassociate the funds from the fraud,” the prosecutors said. The prosecutors also alleged that he carried out various money movements to evade the reporting requirements under federal law.

After converting the ill-gotten funds into dollars, he used the funds to finance several extravagant purchases including a Mercedes Benz luxury vehicle, jewelry, hotels, and other expenses. Brooklyn Attorney Breon Peace said that the office will continually go after such criminals. “This Office will continue to prioritize prosecuting criminal actors who use new, sophisticated technology to engage in the old scheme of fraud and deceit,” the United States prosecutor said.