into the Algrim Consulting data center at
Asbru. They stole 104 Bitcoin computers,
along with power sources, graphics cards,
and assorted supplies. Five days later, on
December 10, the Borealis Data Center
told police that someone had tried and
failed to break into their facility at Asbru,
attempting to disable the alarm by gluing
the security sensors.
The police seemed slow to investigate,
and the burgled companies preferred that
the crimes stay quiet. “The data centers
didn’t want this getting out, because
it could affect their talks with foreign
investors,” says one observer. Iceland
had become the world’s leader in Bitcoin
mining based in part on its reputation of
being virtually crime-free. Any talk of a
heist would be bad for business.
Stefansson and the rest of the gang
might have stopped there. They already
had enough computers to set up their
own small Bitcoin mine and enjoy the
proceeds. But making money in crypto-
currency requires size and speed: It takes
a lot of computing power to solve and
package data, and the only people who
get paid are the ones who crack the com-
plex equations first. In Bitcoin mining,
every second counts.
Then Stefansson got a call from some-
one he had studied computer science
with at the university. The friend was
working as an electrician in the small
town of Borgarnes, on Iceland’s west-
ern coast, and he had noticed somethingstrange. The warehouse at the local AVK
Data Center suddenly needed more
electricity—a lot more electricity—for
something called Bitcoin.
“There is a mine in there,” the friend
told Stefansson.
Stefansson drove from Akureyri and
studied the small metal building in the
middle of nowhere. The mine was only
six days old. Security? Nonexistent. The
alarm system hadn’t yet arrived. The lone
police officer patrolling the area had gone
home for the night. And a window way
up high had conveniently been left open,
to let the frigid air cool the red-hot com-
puters. This being Iceland, someone had
even left a ladder nearby.
Stefansson asked Matthias Karlsson
to buy a vehicle, and the conscientious
day care worker came through with a
cheap blue van, purchased on the Ice-
landic version of eBay. Ten days after
their first job, Stefansson and Viktor the
Cutie drove to the data center, where
Stefansson climbed the ladder, slipped
through the open window, and landed,
catlike, on the concrete floor. Then he
and Jonasson stacked 28 brand-new
“money machines” into their waiting
van and raced away.
In their excitement, they took the
fastest route: the Whale Fjord Tunnel, a
3.6-mile passage beneath the icy waters
of the Hvalfjörður fjord. A CCTV camera
at the toll booth snapped a photograph
that showed Stefansson behind thewheel. There was also an image of what
police would later claim was Jonasson’s
tattooed left forearm. (In court, the Cutie
tried to use his love of tattoos as an alibi: A
tattoo artist testified that Viktor had spent
the entire night in bed with her.)
The next morning, one of the mine’s
investors logged in from Germany to
check the overnight action from the data
center. What came back was...nothing. No
data. Not even a connection. In a panic,
he called the mine’s owner back in Bor-
garnes. “Something’s wrong!” he told her.
The woman—a feisty, 66-year-old
entrepreneur—had been convinced by
her two “computer nerd” sons to give
them $50,000 to open the mine. “I’m
an old bitch,” she tells me in her thick
Icelandic accent, a heavy woolen cap
pulled low over her white hair. “I never
understood the Bitcoin, never. I’m not
going to pretend.” Now, she and her sons
raced to the mine. “We opened the door
and everything was empty!” she recalls.
“We were so surprised! This would never
happen in Iceland!”
The owner called the police, who
reviewed footage from a CCTV camera
at a nearby hardware store. It clearly
showed the used blue van Karlsson had
bought. The police ran the plates andTHE FUGITIVES
The Sogn prison, where Stefansson escaped.
He was captured after he and his accomplices
posted a photo on Instagram (left).115LARGE PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW TESTA/
THE NEW YORK TIMES
/REDUX
DECEMBER 2019