A Nebraska man has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison for running a large-scale illegal "cryptojacking" scheme that defrauded two major cloud computing providers out of more than $3.5 million worth of computing resources, which he used to mine nearly $1 million in cryptocurrency.
Charles O. Parks III, 46, also known online as "CP3O," pleaded guilty in December 2024 to wire fraud after being indicted earlier that year. He initially faced a maximum sentence of 30 years.
Parks will forfeit $500,000 and a Mercedes-Benz luxury car purchased with proceeds from the scheme. Restitution will be determined later.
“Charles Parks III stole more than $3.5 million worth of resources to illegally mine another million in cryptocurrency for personal luxurious purchases,” said Christopher G. Raia, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office.
“While Parks gloated across social media platforms, he failed to mention his purported success was rooted in deceit and theft,” Raia added.
What is cryptojacking?
Cryptojacking is the unauthorized use of another party’s computing resources, such as servers or cloud infrastructure, to mine cryptocurrency. Prosecutors said that between January and August 2021, Parks created fake companies and accounts to trick cloud providers into granting him high-level computing power, which he then exploited to mine Ethereum, Litecoin and Monero.
Parks used email addresses linked to shell entities such as "MultiMillionaire LLC" and "CP3O LLC" to obtain and maintain accounts with cloud computing firms.
He misled providers with claims that he was building a large-scale online education platform serving thousands of students, when in reality he was running mining scripts. When confronted about unusual data usage and unpaid bills, he continued to deflect inquiries.
The illegally mined cryptocurrency was then laundered through exchanges, NFT marketplaces and traditional banks. Parks spent the converted proceeds on luxury purchases, including jewelry, hotels and travel, while cultivating an online persona as a crypto influencer.
His now defunct X, Facebook and Instagram accounts described him as “Professional. Media. Technology. Strategy. Consultant.” as he boasted about his profits.
In a 2022 YouTube video, he bragged that he had written a "really nice crypto script" in ten days that allowed him to avoid working for the rest of the year.
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