Judge Denies Man’s Attempt to Retrieve $750m Worth of Bitcoin from Landfill
A decade-long legal battle over a lost Bitcoin fortune has come to a disappointing end for James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales.
According to the BBC, a Cardiff High Court has dismissed Howells’ lawsuit against Newport City Council, denying him access to a landfill where a discarded hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins is believed to be.
The hard drive, which was accidentally thrown away in 2013, is now valued at between $700-750 million as of the time of writing, with the price of Bitcoin recently exceeding $94,000 per unit.
Howells had requested permission to excavate the landfill or receive £495 million in compensation, offering a portion of the recovered Bitcoin to the council and the local community.
However, Judge Keyser KC ruled that there were no “reasonable grounds” for the claim, citing environmental concerns and the council’s ownership of the landfill contents.
It is reported that the landfill contains 1.4 million tonnes of waste, but Howells claims to have identified the location of the hard drive within a 100,000-tonne section.
In response to the ruling, Howells expressed his frustration, stating that it was a “kick in the teeth,” according to the BBC.
Howells, an early adopter of Bitcoin, mined the cryptocurrency in 2009 when it had little value. Despite multiple negotiations and the formation of a team of experts for the recovery effort, the council maintained that excavation was not feasible due to environmental regulations.
While Howells’ ownership of the Bitcoins was not disputed, the court’s decision brings an end to a saga marked by missed opportunities and legal obstacles.
