Man Suing City for $647 Million over Bitcoin in Landfill

Would you dig through a mountain of trash if there was a half a billion dollars somewhere inside? One man in England is trying to do just that.

James Howells, a Welsh IT engineer, has been embroiled in a decade-long legal battle with the Newport City Council in an effort to recover a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins, worth an estimated $500 million at its peak.

This goes back to 2013 when Howells accidentally threw away a hard drive where the Bitcoins were being held. By the time he realized what he had done, the trash had already been taken to the landfill.

Howells wanted to search for the hard drive at the landfill but was stopped by authorities. The city council has denied his requests, citing environmental concerns and the logistical challenges of such a massive excavation.

They claim that such a search would take roughly three years to search and another year to put everything back. That doesn’t even factor in the cost, which the city puts at $13 million dollars.

Howells claims that he has secured private funding to cover the cost for the search and is willing to give the city $50 million dollars for the trouble as a finders fee, but they still say no. Currently a single Bitcoin is worth more than $64,000.

So Howells is taking his case to the courts. He is seeking more than $647 million dollars and the case is set to be heard in December.

Wood is host of the Taste of Country Mornings With Wood and Nicole, which can be heard every morning from 6-10AM CT on the Taste of Country app, on local affiliates where available and online at tasteofcountry.com.