A Nebraska man operated a large-scale "cryptojacking" scheme that defrauded cloud computing service providers out of more than $3.5 million worth of services, reports USA Today. Charles Parks III, 45, has been charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions. Parks was arrested Saturday. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years for the first two charges in addition to 10 years for the third one.
Prosecutors said Parks illicitly acquired over $970,000 in cryptocurrency, which he laundered through cryptocurrency exchanges and bank accounts, and spent on luxury items like a Mercedes Benz and jewelry. From January 2021 to August 2021, Parks made up names, corporate affiliations and email addresses to register numerous accounts with cloud providers and gain access to "immense amounts of computing processing and storage" that he did not pay for, the indictment said. His arrest is the latest case of cryptojacking -- a type of cybercrime where a victim's computer, tablet, or mobile device is secretly used to generate cryptocurrency. In recent years, cryptocurrency has surged in popularity, leading to a new form of malware creation. Federal authorities have cracked down on numerous cryptocurrency crimes in recent years.