"CP3O" pleads guilty to multi-million dollar cryptomining scheme

A man faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to an illegal cryptomining operation that stole millions of dollars worth of cloud computing resources.

45-year-old Charles O Parks III (who went by the moniker "CP30" online) pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges at a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, after defrauding two well-known providers of cloud computing services out of over US $3.5 million.

The well-known providers are not named in the Department of Justice's press release, but as they previously have been referred to as being based in Seattle and Redmond respectively, you wouldn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce which large tech companies were impacted.

The court heard that over a period of eight months in 2021, Parks registered numerous accounts with the cloud providers to gain access to their processing power and storage.

However, Parks created the accounts using fake identities, a variety of email addresses, and company names such as "MultiMillionaire LLC" and "CP3O LLC." Furthermore, he did not pay for his access to the cloud accounts, preferring to deflect the companies' inquiries regarding his data usage and mounting bills, and used them to mine various Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Monero (XMR).

Over the course of his criminal scheme, Parks spun up thousands of high-powered instances. On one occasion, prosecutors claimed, Parks started using a new account at one of the cloud providers within a day of his previous one being banned due to missed payments and fraudulent activity.

Parks is said to have attempted to launder the proceeds from his cryptomining activities via cryptocurrency exchanges, an NFT marketplace, and even traditional bank accounts - attempting to avoid federal requirements to report his cryptocurrency transactions and earnings.

Parks is said to have made approximately US $970,000 from his scheme.

After converting his ill-gotten gains into US dollars, Parks lived in the fast lane - making lavish purchases such as a luxury Mercedes Benz car, expensive jewellery, and first class hotels and travel.

"Through fraud and deceit, Parks acquired powerful computing resources worth millions of dollars to fuel his illegal cryptomining operation," said United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace. “[This] guilty plea underscores our strong commitment to prosecuting criminal actors who enrich themselves through sophisticated cryptocurrency frauds and other complex cyber schemes."