Owner of 7,500 Bitcoins Seeks $647 Million in Compensation from Newport Authorities
Date: 2024-10-15 Author: Henry Casey Categories: IN WORLD
A UK investor, James Howells, has filed a lawsuit against the Newport City Council seeking $647 million in compensation. The reason for the lawsuit was the administration’s long-standing resistance to his requests to excavate a city landfill in order to find a hard drive containing bitcoins, which are currently worth about $500 million. According to Howells, he is ready to fully finance the search operation and even offered the authorities 10% of the amount found if the work is successfully completed.
However, the Newport City Council has rejected his requests several times. The main argument of the officials is that the excavations could harm the environment. During the process of waste decomposition, toxic gases are released at the landfill, and any work at this site may lead to their uncontrolled release, which will create an environmental threat.
Despite these warnings, Howells does not believe that the authorities' position is fair. He insists that the risk is minimal, and the benefit from a successful operation is enormous. Moreover, the man claims that the hard drive ended up at the landfill by mistake - his ex-wife threw it out along with a garbage bag. Now Howells intends to seek permission to excavate through the court.
Interestingly, Howells' story is not unique. Another bitcoin owner, known under the pseudonym Michael, lost access to 43.6 BTC about 11 years ago, having forgotten the password to his cryptocurrency wallet. However, he managed to get his assets back with the help of two hackers specializing in recovering lost data.
