A decade-long legal battle over lost Bitcoin assets ended in disappointment for James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, after a court dismissed his lawsuit against Newport City Council. The man wanted to find a hard drive in a landfill that now holds $750 million worth of bitcoins, which he accidentally threw away more than a decade ago.
crypto news report James Howells, an early Bitcoin adopter from Newport, Wales, UK, says he faced a major setback in his quest to retrieve a discarded hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins, currently worth around $750 million. Reported. This IT engineer accidentally threw away his hard drive in 2013, when Bitcoin was worth very little. However, as the value of the cryptocurrency rose rapidly, Howells asked for the right to excavate the landfill to retrieve the hard drive and offered to share the treasure with the local community. Now that Bitcoin has reached an astronomical value of $94,000, Mr Howells is demanding £495m from Newport City Council if it continues to block his search.
Despite Mr Howells' offer to share some of the recovered bitcoins with the city council and the community, Judge Kaiser KC ruled the request lacked “reasonable grounds”. The decision was based on environmental concerns and the council's ownership over the contents of the landfill. The landfill reportedly holds 1.4 million tons of waste, but Howells claims to have located the hard drives in a 100,000-ton section.
Howells expressed his dissatisfaction with the ruling, calling it “a kick in the teeth.” He assembled a team of experts to carry out restoration work and negotiated with the city council, but local authorities insisted that environmental regulations made excavation impossible.
The court's decision concludes a chapter in a story marked by missed opportunities and legal hurdles for Mr. Howells. Although his ownership of the bitcoins was not in dispute, the ruling effectively ended his hopes of recovering his lost fortune.
read more Click here for crypto news.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News, covering free speech and online censorship issues.
