A self-styled crypto influencer was sentenced to jail after prosecutors stated he ran a big cryptojacking scheme that siphoned cloud computing energy and secretly mined digital cash.
According to the Department of Justice, Charles O. Parks III, who referred to as himself “CP3O” on-line, used pretend enterprise names to win elevated entry to cloud accounts and mined digital property with the stolen sources.
He was given a sentence of 1 yr and at some point and ordered to forfeit $500,000 and a Mercedes-Benz, with restitution to be set later.
How The Scheme Worked
Prosecutors say Parks posed as corporations like “MultiMillionaire LLC” and “CP3O LLC” to persuade cloud suppliers at hand over bigger compute allotments.
Between January and August 2021, the stolen capability was used to mine almost $1million price of Ether, Litecoin, and Monero.
The DOJ additionally stated Parks laundered proceeds by exchanges, an NFT market, cost processors and banks, and that a few of the cash paid for a Mercedes-Benz, jewellery and first-class journey.
Today the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern Dist. of NY unsealed an indictment charging Charles O. Parks III a.okay.a. “CP3O”, with working a large-scale unlawful cryptojacking op
He defrauded cloud comp. providers out of $3.5mil+ price of computing sources to mine crypto price $1mil pic.twitter.com/geXt5BKax6
— jerbz (@JerbztheGreat) April 16, 2024
The defendant pleaded responsible to wire fraud in December, avoiding longer costs that might have carried far stiffer sentences.
An April 2024 indictment named accounts tied to a subsidiary of a Seattle-based cloud and electronics agency and a Redmond-based computing firm as amongst these defrauded.
Authorities described the full worth of computing sources taken within the scheme as greater than $3.5 million.
Bigger Picture On Crypto Crime
The Parks case arrived alongside studies of huge consumer losses from scams. Blockchain watchers flagged a $3 million USDT phishing loss lately, and safety agency information present roughly $2.50 billion misplaced to hacks, scams and breaches within the first half of 2025.
As of immediately, the market cap of cryptocurrencies stood at $3.83 trillion. Chart: TradingView
Wallet breaches accounted for almost $2 billion throughout 34 incidents, whereas phishing assaults totaled over $400 million throughout 132 occasions, in line with these trade figures.
🚨 The Q2 + H1 2025 Hack3d Report is right here.
$2.47B misplaced within the first half of the yr.
$801M misplaced in Q2 alone.
Phishing and pockets compromise dominated the risk panorama.Dive into the info👇🧵 pic.twitter.com/Sxa6AGejGK
— CertiK (@CertiK) June 30, 2025
Why Cloud Providers Were Vulnerable
Cloud providers lease enormous quantities of CPU and GPU time, and attackers who acquire elevated entry can run mining rigs at scale whereas payments pile up within the suppliers’ ledgers.
In this case, the miners transformed compute into cryptocurrency that prosecutors say funded a luxurious life-style. The DOJ framed the case as a transparent instance of how tech entry and lax vetting will be abused for revenue.
The sentencing included forfeiture of $500,000 and the automotive; remaining restitution numbers can be determined later.
Officials, together with New York City Police Department commissioner Jessica S. Tisch, careworn that the case exhibits the real-world influence of tech fraud and unlawful mining.
Featured picture from The Boar, chart from TradingView
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