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Cryptocurrency News Articles
IT Engineer Sues City Council Over Lost $500M Bitcoin Hard Drive
Oct 14, 2024 at 10:30 am
James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council after more than a decade of efforts to recover a hard drive containing 7,500 bitcoins
An IT engineer from Newport, Wales, has filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council after a decade-long effort to recover a hard drive containing 7,500 bitcoins, now valued at over $470 million, was thwarted by the council.
According to a report by Walesonline on Monday, James Howells, the plaintiff in the case, lost access to his bitcoins after the hard drive was mistakenly dumped at a recycling center in 2013. He claims that the council has “largely ignored” his repeated requests to excavate the landfill where the hard drive is believed to be buried.
The hard drive was reportedly disposed of after a miscommunication with Howells’ then-partner, who mistook it for household waste and discarded it in a bin bag. At the time, the bitcoins were valued at less than £1 million, but their price has since soared.
Howells, who has assembled a team of experts for the £10 million ($12.7 million) excavation, insists it would be done at no cost to the council. He has also offered the council 10% of the recovered bitcoin’s value, stating: “I’m still allocating 10% of the value for the council even though they have been problematic throughout.”
The bitcoin enthusiast added:
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.
The dispute traces back to 2013 when a miscommunication with his then-partner led to the hard drive being accidentally thrown away. The bitcoins, worth less than £1 million at the time, have since skyrocketed in value. Howells recalled the mix-up, stating that his partner had initially refused to dispose of the bin bag. He was “not overly concerned” at the time, as he had planned to double-check whether he had placed the correct hard drive in the bin bag. However, when he woke at 9 a.m., his partner had already returned from the school run and taken the bin bag away.
Since then, Howells has devoted himself full-time to recovering it, giving up his IT job and securing investors to help fund the operation. He now believes there is an 80% chance that the data on the hard drive can be recovered if located. He opined:
It is what it is. I could spend the rest of my life working nine-to-five and thinking about it every day. I might as well spend my time trying to recover this simple piece of metal. Until the courts tells me ‘N-O spells no’, I’m going to keep going.
“Obviously my finances are not in the best position at the moment. I’m focusing all my current efforts and resources, including money, on the recovery project. I struggle along in the meantime,” he added.
Despite his persistence, Newport City Council has repeatedly rejected Howells’ pleas, citing environmental concerns. Howells’ team of experts, including the council’s former head of landfill, claims they can safely excavate the site using artificial intelligence.
What do you think about James Howells’ decade-long battle to recover his lost $500 million bitcoin fortune? Let us know in the comments section below.
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