A man who has been attempting to retrieve his eye-watering £612 million Bitcoin fortune has now received a verdict.
For over 10 years, James Howells has been at war with the local council after his hard drive with 8,000 Bitcoins on it was thrown away.
The 39-year-old’s former partner chucked out a black bin bag containing the hard drive and since then it has been laying in a rubbish tip near Newport, Wales.
And for context, at the time of writing, the value of 8,000 Bitcoins is worth a whopping £612,063,222.08, to be exact.
In an update, James has sadly lost his legal fight to retrieve his crypto fortune.
Last December Newport Council asked a High Court judge to strike out his legal action to either access the landfill or get £495m in compensation.
Judge Keyser KC has now said there were no ‘reasonable grounds’ for bringing the claim and ‘no realistic prospect’ of succeeding at a full trial.
James, who wants to take his case to the Supreme Court, said: “Despite being thrown out by my ex partner, which was a mistake and was without my permission or consent, I still own the intellectual digital property located on the hard drive.
“I am either entitled to recover the property at full cost to myself or if the landowner refuses they it they pay me the value of my property.
“I would much rather say let’s have a conversation and let’s dig and work together amicably – but they don’t want to know.
“It is crazy money that could do so much good for the area.”
He added: “The council lives in the dark ages. Newport could have looked like Las Vegas or Dubai if they had the foresight to engage. But they did not understand crypto currency and have refused to learn.
“If they had spoken to me back then about investment in crypto the whole area – the whole of South Wales – could have profited from the rise. But they were not intelligent enough or willing to listen to do so.
“I have continued to try and engage with them and they’ve rejected all communication with us.
“In June this year I finally decided to take legal action against Newport Council – this is a last resort.
“They have continued to ignore my reasonable requests so legal action is the only course I could take.
“The assets are legally owned on their property. I am the owner of those and I have that legal right to retrieve my property.”
James continued: “I believe I can do so at no cost or impact to Newport Council – yet they continue to refuse any efforts to engage.
“I’ve employed a team that have done multiple landfill excavations – all within environmental guidelines.
“We also have AI experts that have the tech to make the job of finding the needle in the haystack that much easier.
“I can carry out everything at no cost to the public.”
Newport City Council said: “Newport City Council has been contacted multiple times since 2013 about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware said to be in our landfill site.
“The council has told Mr. Howells multiple times that excavation is not possible under our environmental permit, and that work of that nature would have a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area.
“The council is the only body authorised to carry out operations on the site.
“Mr. Howells’s claim has no merit, and the council is vigorously resisting it.”
