威尔士法官驳回 IT 工程师从垃圾填埋场回收价值 7.7 亿美元比特币硬盘的法律尝试

威尔士巡回商事法官 Keyser KC 法官驳回了 IT 工程师 James Howells 追回 7.7 亿美元比特币的法律尝试

An IT engineer in the United Kingdom has failed in his legal bid to retrieve a hard drive containing $770 million in Bitcoin (BTC) from a landfill in Newport.

英国一名 IT 工程师未能通过法律诉讼从纽波特的垃圾填埋场取回装有价值 7.7 亿美元比特币 (BTC) 的硬盘。

James Howells, the engineer, had filed a claim against the city council, seeking permission to excavate the landfill in search of the drive, which reportedly holds 8,000 BTC that he mined in 2009. At the time, each Bitcoin was valued at $13.

工程师詹姆斯·豪厄尔斯 (James Howells) 向市议会提出索赔，请求允许挖掘垃圾填埋场以寻找驱动器，据报道驱动器内藏有他在 2009 年开采的 8,000 枚比特币。当时，每个比特币的价值为 13 美元。

According to a BBC report on January 9, Judge Keyser KC, the Circuit Commercial Judge for Wales, dismissed Howells’ case, stating that it had “no realistic prospect” of succeeding if it were to proceed to a full trial.

据英国广播公司 1 月 9 日报道，威尔士巡回商事法官 Keyser KC 驳回了豪厄尔斯的案件，称如果进行全面审判，该案“没有成功的现实前景”。

“The case being struck out at the earliest hearing doesn't even give me the opportunity to explain myself or an opportunity for justice in any shape or form,” Howells said in reaction to the decision. “There was so much more that could have been explained in a full trial and that's what I was expecting.”

豪厄尔斯在回应这一决定时表示：“该案在最早的听证会上被驳回，甚至没有给我解释自己的机会，也没有给我以任何形式伸张正义的机会。” “在完整的试验中可以解释更多的事情，这正是我所期待的。”

Howells asserts that his partner accidentally threw away the hard drive in 2013, and he has been attempting to retrieve it ever since. He has made numerous requests to the Newport City Council for permission to search the site, which have been consistently denied.

豪厄尔斯声称，他的伴侣在 2013 年不小心扔掉了硬盘，从那以后他一直试图找回它。他多次向纽波特市议会提出搜查该地点的请求，但均遭到拒绝。

The council maintains that once the hard drive entered the landfill, existing laws transferred its ownership to the council. Additionally, the council's environmental permits prohibit any excavation of the site to search for the drive.

该委员会坚称，一旦硬盘进入垃圾填埋场，现行法律就将其所有权转移给了该委员会。此外，该委员会的环境许可证禁止对该地点进行任何挖掘以寻找驱动器。

James Goudie KC, who represents the council, argued that Howells' offer to donate 10% of the Bitcoin to the local community was essentially encouraging the council to “play fast and loose” by “signing up for a share of the action.”

该委员会的代表詹姆斯·古迪·KC (James Goudie KC) 认为，豪厄尔斯向当地社区捐赠 10% 的比特币的提议本质上是鼓励委员会通过“参与行动”来“快速而宽松”。

The landfill contains over 1.4 million tonnes of waste, but Howells claims to have pinpointed the location of the hard drive to a section containing 100,000 tonnes. Despite this, the council stated that on October 11, 2024, it had informed Howells multiple times that excavation was not permitted under its environmental permit due to the significant negative impact it would have on the surrounding area.

该垃圾填埋场含有超过 140 万吨废物，但 Howells 声称已将硬盘位置精确到含有 10 万吨废物的区域。尽管如此，该委员会表示，2024年10月11日，它已多次通知豪厄尔斯，根据其环境许可证，不允许进行挖掘，因为这会对周边地区产生重大负面影响。

However, Howells has accused the council of breaching environmental regulations, asserting that he possesses “100 independently verified pieces of evidence” to back his claims. He alleges that the council has been violating its landfill permit by allowing arsenic, asbestos, ammonium nitrate, and methane gases to leak into the surrounding environment.

然而，豪厄尔斯指责该委员会违反了环境法规，并声称他拥有“100 份独立核实的证据”来支持他的说法。他声称该委员会违反了垃圾填埋许可证，允许砷、石棉、硝酸铵和甲烷气体泄漏到周围环境中。

The James Howells case gained more attention in 2024 after Bitcoin's historic rise to $100,000, which saw the cryptocurrency generate over 130% in yearly returns. The IT engineer speculated that the Bitcoin on his hard drive could be worth £1 billion, or around $1.21 billion, by next year.

2024 年，比特币历史性上涨至 10 万美元后，詹姆斯·豪厄尔斯 (James Howells) 案获得了更多关注，该加密货币的年回报率超过 130%。这位 IT 工程师推测，到明年，他硬盘上的比特币可能价值 10 亿英镑，约合 12.1 亿美元。