The post UK man takes Newport City Council to court for $647M over Bitcoin buried in landfill appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

James Howells is taking Newport City Council to court, demanding $647 million (£495 million) for 8,000 Bitcoins that he lost after a hard drive was mistakenly dumped in a landfill in 2013. The 39-year-old IT engineer says this is his “last resort” after years of being ignored by the council. Howells wants access to the landfill to search for the hard drive, now worth hundreds of millions. But the council has refused to cooperate. He’s been trying to get it back for over a decade, and his patience has evidently run out. A decade of being ignored Howells claims that the council’s refusal to allow the recovery operation has caused him immense financial loss. According to him, he’s willing to fund a $12 million (£10 million) excavation at no cost to the council, offering them a 10% share of the recovered Bitcoin. If successful, the council would walk away with more than $41 million. He’s taking this to court, hoping to force the council to reconsider. At the time Howells lost the drive, Bitcoin was still in its early stages and hadn’t reached the massive value it holds today. Back then, the coins were worth under $1 million. Today, they’ve soared to nearly $500 million. In the court documents, Howells explained how this all happened due to a simple mistake. He had asked his then-partner to take some bin bags to the local recycling center after a cleanout. Unfortunately, she mistakenly threw out the wrong bag, and the hard drive ended up at the Docksway landfill site. By the time Howells realized what had happened, it was too late. “If they had talked to me back then, Newport would look like Dubai by now,” Howells said. “They’ve missed an incredible opportunity. They could’ve turned the city into something special with…

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Filed under: News - @ October 12, 2024 10:20 pm