A Bitcoin mine in Channing, Texas, is facing a lawsuit over allegations that it has not been paying its workers their full salaries, and has its origins in China.
The mine, known as BitRush or BytesRush, is owned by Jerry Yu. The 23-year-old is a student at New York University, and a Chinese citizen and resident of the United States.
Crypto hunters from China
And in more bad news to Jerry, the lawsuit has dug up documentation revealing that Chinese investors are flocking the US in drives, and investing hundreds of millions of dollars to build and operate Bitcoin mining activities.
Texas boasts of cheap energy and laws that are friendly to the crypto industry, and has therefore been able to become a vibrant abode for people interested in mining Bitcoin and other digital coins.
Prospectors from China set up shop there, use the mines to mine digital currencies, then convert their loot into US Dollars.
Authorities have a hard time trying to identify the origin of these huge sums of money, since even the mining equipment is purchased using crypto.
The opaque nature of these transactions enables the Chinese investors to stay under the radar of oversight by authorities in Texas and other states in the US, and to skirt restrictions put in place to curb the transfer of money to China.
However, Yu’s lawyer, Garvin Clarkson has rubbished the claims against his client, terming them “baseless”. The lawyer also refused to reveal the identities of the mine’s shareholders, or whether his client has a personal relationship with them.
Several firms linked to China also under scrutiny
Bitrush is not the first Bitcoin mining firm to come under scrutiny from the US authorities. In October, officials at the Pentagon began a probe into another company based in Wyoming. The investigation began because US intelligence believed that the mine’s link to China posed a significant threat to national security.
In 2022, the White House revealed that the United States is now the biggest Bitcoin and other cryptos mining industry in the world.
It is estimated that the US is home to 38% of the world’s Bitcoin mining and trade activities.
