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James Howell lost his legal battle to recover a hard drive with $770 million worth of Bitcoin after a UK judge dismissed the case
The hard drive was accidentally discarded by Howells’ former partner over a decade ago and ended up in a Newport landfill. The Newport City Council repeatedly refused to give him access to the landfill, citing environmental permit restrictions.
Since 2013, Howells has sought to recover his hard disk and sued the local council to enter the site or get compensation. But Judge Keyser KC has now dismissed the case.
He said there were no “reasonable grounds” for filing the claim and “no realistic prospect” of succeeding at a full trial.
Newport Council succeeds in having claim dismissed involving attempt by claimant to recover hard drive containing key to Bitcoin (allegedly worth over £600m) accidentally sent to landfill in 2013 https://t.co/7Up3LCgbAI
— James Lee (@jamessflee) January 9, 2025
The crypto miner had also offered a share of the Bitcoin if the hard disk was found.
The Story Of The World’s Most Valuable Hard Disk
The saga of the $770 million Bitcoin hard drive started in 2009, when James Howells says he successfully mined 8,000 BTC. Like many other early adopters of the cryptocurrency, Howells had no idea that Bitcoin’s price would reach extraordinary heights.
In 2013, Howells’ partner accidentally threw away the hard disk. At that time, BTC was trading at $13. Since then, it’s skyrocketed and now stands at $94,507.
On October 11, the council said that it had informed Howells “multiple times that excavation is not possible.” The council referred to the “huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area.”
Following the council’s rejection, Howells accused it of breaching environmental regulations. He claimed to possess over “100 independently verified pieces of evidence” that would support his allegations.
Howells claimed the council had been violating environmental policies “by leeching arsenic, asbestos, ammonium nitrate, and methane gases into the local environment.”
The council also claimed that the hard drive became its property once it reached the landfill. James Goudie KC, for the council, said that the miner’s offer to donate 10% of Bitcoin to the local community was tempting the council to “play fast and loose” by “signing up for a share of the action.”
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