British man sues local council to recover lost hard drive containing $527 million in bitcoins

British man sues local council to recover lost hard drive containing $527 million in bitcoins

In 2013, James Howells accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins that he had mined in 2009. At the time, the value of the bitcoins was about $1 million, but they are now worth more than $527 million (€433 million euros).

The British man, from Wales, has now filed a legal claim against the local Newport City Council to recover his lost fortune.

Howells, 39, has been trying for 10 years to get permission to search the landfill where the hard drive ended up. However, his requests have been denied several times because of environmental concerns. So far, the City Council has remained mostly silent on the matter, which has driven Howells to file a £495 million (converted to $646 million) claim for damages, matching the highest value reached by the 8,000 BTC earlier this year.

The case is prediction to go to trial in December 2024. Howells hopes, however, that the City Council will agree to excavate the landfill to avoid a lengthy lawsuit. He has assembled a team of experts for an excavation that is estimated to cost $13 million and take 18 to 36 months. After this, another year will be needed for remedial work at the landfill.

The experts include a former head of the landfill, who claims to know in which specific part of the landfill the hard drive is located. Despite the city council's earlier rejections, Howells remains optimistic. He has even agreed to cede 10% of the value, about £41 million, to the council if the excavation is successful. He predicts that this amount could potentially rise to hundreds of millions in the future.

However, the Newport City Council has consistently rejected the proposed excavation because of concerns about the potential environmental damage such a project could cause.