James Howells fought Newport council after his ex-spouse threw the hard drive in the trash in 2013.
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A man’s attempt to sue a council over his attempts to seek a junk sale to locate a Bitcoin hard drive valued at around £600 million has seen his case thrown out of court through a judge.
James Howells claims his ex-wife gave up the hard drive by mistake in 2013, but its price has risen in the last year to now reach an estimated £598 million.
While the Newport landfill in Wales houses more than 1. 4 million tonnes of waste, Howells said it had narrowed down the Bitcoin wallet location to a domain of 100,000 tonnes.
Despite this, the council asked a High Court to issue a ruling to quash its legal action to gain access to the site or obtain £495 million in compensation, arguing that the site already had its assets when it entered the landfill.
Judge Keyser KC said there was “no realistic prospect” of the case going to trial and ruled there were no “moderate grounds” to bring the action.
Bitcoin is known as a form of cryptocurrency, it is completely virtual, without physical bills or coins. It can be used online to purchase products and is stored in a virtual wallet, although several outlets and countries prohibit its use.
Howells started with bitcoin in the late 2000s, shortly after its introduction, and forgot about it when it was thrown into the landfill.
However, in 2024 the value of the cryptocurrency rose by more than 80 per cent in 2024 and Mr Howells assembled a team of experts to attempt to locate the missing file.
He took legal action against Newport City Council with the support of a US hedge fund, after he was continually denied access to excavations in the area.
Speaking to The Independent in 2023, he said: “For the last 10 years I have tried to interact with Newport City Council in a professional way, they are the owners of the site, they are the operators and they have the permit for the landfill. . Array, so I wanted to be friends with them and work with them,” he said.
“And to do that I’ve always tried to build a bigger, better team to try and impress them and finally engage with me.”
James Goudie KC, for the council, had argued that environmental permits forbid such searches, and the offer to donate 10 per cent of the money to the local community was encouraging the council to “play fast and loose”.
Judge Keyser ruled: “I consider that the particulars of claim do not show any reasonable grounds for bringing this case.
“I also believe that the claim would have no realistic chance of good luck if it were to go to court and that there is no other convincing explanation as to why it deserves to be settled at trial. »
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James Howells outdoors, the liquidation he thinks his hard drive full of cryptocurrencies belongs to
James Howells outdoors, the liquidation he thinks his hard drive full of cryptocurrencies belongs to
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