A decade-long legal battle over a lost Bitcoin fortune has ended in disappointment for James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, after a court dismissed his lawsuit against the Newport City Council. The man hoped to search a landfill for a hard drive he accidentally threw away more than a decade ago holding Bitcoin now worth $750 million.
Crypto News reports that James Howells, an early Bitcoin adopter from Newport, Wales, in the UK has faced a major setback in his quest to retrieve a discarded hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins, now valued at about $750 million. The IT engineer accidentally threw away the hard drive in 2013 when Bitcoin had negligible value. However, as the cryptocurrency rapidly increased in value, Howells sought the right to excavate the landfill to recover the hard drive, offering to share the treasure with the local community. Now that Bitcoin has achieved the astronomical value of $94,000, Howells demanded £495 million in compensation from the Newport City Council if it continued to block his search.
Despite Howells’ offer to share a portion of the recovered Bitcoin with the council and the local community, Judge Keyser KC ruled that there were no “reasonable grounds” for the claim. The decision was based on environmental concerns and the council’s ownership of the landfill contents. The landfill reportedly holds 1.4 million tons of waste, although Howells claims to have pinpointed the hard drive’s location to a 100,000-ton section.
Reacting to the ruling, Howells expressed his frustration, calling it a “kick in the teeth.” He had assembled a team of experts for the recovery effort and engaged in repeated negotiations with the council, but the local authority maintained that excavation was impossible due to environmental regulations.
The court’s decision closes a chapter in a saga marked by missed opportunities and legal roadblocks for Howells. While his ownership of the Bitcoins was not contested, the ruling has effectively ended his hopes of retrieving the lost fortune.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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