In 2013, James Howells accidentally discarded a hard drive containing the keys to 8,000 bitcoins at a recycling center in Newport, Wales. Upon realizing his mistake, he asked the local council for permission to search the landfill to recover the drive. The council denied his request.
For years, Howells has unsuccessfully tried to persuade the council to allow him to search for the drive. Now, he has taken the drastic step of filing a lawsuit against the council for £495,314,800 (US$646,000,000) in damages, representing the highest value of bitcoin in 2024.
Howell's told WalesOnline that filed the suit to compel the council into action:
[Howells] told us this is not a reflection of "what is really going on" and the point is to "leverage" the council into agreeing to an excavation of its landfill to avoid a legal battle. Mr Howells says he has assembled a team of experts who would carry out the £10million dig at no cost to the council. He is also offering the council 10% of the coins' value if recovered.
The case is due to be heard in December after what Mr Howells described as more than a decade of being "largely ignored" by the council. "I'm still allocating 10% of the value for the council even though they have been problematic throughout," he said. "That would be £41m based on today's rate but in the future it could be hundreds of millions. If they had spoken to me in 2013 this place would look like Las Vegas now. Newport would look like Dubai. That's the kind of opportunity they've missed."
Previously:
• This guy's hard drive with $500 million in bitcoin is lost at a dump, and local officials won't let him retrieve it