The State Duma approved in the first reading a bill on criminal liability for illegal mining

The State Duma approved in the first reading a bill on criminal liability for illegal mining

The State Duma passed in the first reading a bill on punishment for those who engage in cryptocurrency mining without being entered in a special registry.

The Criminal Code is supposed to receive a new article — 171.6. The maximum punishment under it (in the case of an organized group or especially large-scale damage) will be a fine of up to 2.5 million rubles or imprisonment for up to five years.

The bill also provides for the confiscation of property obtained as a result of illegal mining. But criminal liability may be waived if the damage is voluntarily compensated.

"We are not against legal mining as such — by all means, register, work within the legal framework, pay taxes. But the scheme of 'set up a farm in the basement of an apartment building, burn out the transformer, and let the neighbors pay' must be firmly stopped. Criminal liability here is an adequate measure," said Igor Igoshin, first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on competition protection.

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