Paraguayan senator accuses power agency officials of taking $500,000 in bribes a month to allow illegal Bitcoin mines to operate

Paraguayan Senator Salyn Buzarquis has harshly criticized the Paraguayan National Electricity Agency (ANDE), saying that its top officials accepted bribes to allow illegal Bitcoin mines to operate privately. Salyn Buzarquis said that these unnamed officials received bribes of up to $500,000 per month and called on ANDE President Felix Sosa to resign or be questioned on the matter. ANDE issued a statement denying these claims and emphasized that the state-owned company has been damaged in the fight against energy theft. The statement declared: "The characteristic of this institution is to fight head-on against such punishable actions, especially mines that illegally carry out crypto mining activities." Last week, ANDE announced an increase in electricity prices for legal cryptocurrency mining operators in Paraguay, with the highest increase reaching 14%. (Bitcoin.com) Previously, employees of the Paraguayan National Electricity Administration (ANDE) were accused of being directly involved in the establishment of illegal Bitcoin mines in Paraguay. Seven engineers employed by the Paraguayan National Electricity Administration will be involved in organizing illegal connections to provide electricity to Bitcoin businesses in Paraguay. The director of the National Electricity Administration, Felix Sosa, clarified that the internal audit department of the agency is conducting a verification and organizational investigation into the organization. All relevant information will be submitted to the National Attorney's Office for further investigation. However, Sosa said that the employees of the National Electricity Company have not been responsible for the execution of electrical connections for some time, delegating this function to third-party contractors. ANDE has been fighting against illegal Bitcoin mining connections since December last year, and has disconnected power to more than 70 mines that were drawing unmetered electricity directly from the grid.