History will always remember the Wales-based software engineer, James Howells who threw away half a billion dollars of bitcoins in the trash can.
This case dates back to 2013 when Howells unintentionally put a hard drive containing 8,000 BTCs in the trash while cleaning his office.
As of today the, 8,000 BTCs are worth $514.37 million, at a market price of $64,296.34 per unit.
For sometime Howells has asked the Newport City Council to allow him to search for his hard drive at the local landfill but the council has on numerous occasions refused to allow Howells access to the landfill. He even offered to share the value of the Bitcoins if the hard drive with the Bitcoins was found but that did not move the council.
In a last-ditch effort, the Wales-based software engineer filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council for roughly 495.31 million British pounds, or about $647 million, in damages for repeatedly denying his request to excavate the landfill site housing the discarded hard drive, which contains around 8,000 units of Bitcoin.
Howells plans to use the lawsuit as a strategy to convince the council to allow an excavation of its landfill.
Howells has assembled a team of specialists to carry out the excavation at no cost to the council. He has also proposed to give the council 10% of the recovered coins’ value.
The case is set for a hearing in December. Newport Council, however, has dismissed the lawsuit as “weak” and expressed concerns over potential environmental impacts of the proposed excavation.