Man who lost half-billion dollar Bitcoin HDD sues local authority for $500 million for not letting him dig through landfill

A Welsh man whose partner accidentally threw out an HDD containing 8,000 Bitcoins has become increasingly desperate to recoup the lost treasure. Newport resident James Howells has been wrangling with the local council since 2013, trying to gain permission to search the town dump to recover his hoard, but all his efforts thus far have been in vain. Now Howells has decided to sue the local council for £495 million ($644 million) "because they won't give me back my bin (trash) bag," reports Wales Online.

Howells claims the legal action to be a last-resort initiative after becoming frustrated with years of rebuttals from Newport Council. The 8,000 Bitcoins would be worth £414 million ($538 million) today. However, Howells is asking for £495 million ($644 million), which reflects the peak valuation of the BTC cryptocurrency from earlier this year.

According to the source report, the legal case will be heard in court this December. We aren't sure if Howells, his legal team, and his consortium of backers believe they can win such a case. However, Howells told local media that the court case would apply leverage on the council – so they may change their mind about his city dump excavation plans. We shall see.

On the surface, Howells' previous requests to excavate the landfill area where his trash bag will have been buried may seem pretty reasonable. He will sweeten the deal by offering to give the council 10% of the recovered value of the HDD BTC hoard—a bounty worth £41 million ($58 million) today.

Howells and his team of investors/backers pledged to the council that they would carry out a £10 million ($13 million) excavation project, which would take from 18 to 36 months, to uncover the lost HDD – then commit to a further year of remediation work at the site. The recovery team focuses on 'Cell 2 – Area 2' of the Docksway landfill as the likely location of the BTC booty. They reckon there is an 80% chance that the precious HDD data will still be retrievable.

Looking at things from the council's side, it shows their concerns are pretty simple and reasonable. Newport Council says that any such 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."

Moreover, it doesn't sound like Howell's latest ploy to access the buried BTC in the landfill has made a good impression. Wales Online says the council has already responded to the legal action, and it characterizes it as "a fundamentally weak claim which we are vigorously resisting." Moreover, the council has previously argued that the HDD became legally theirs after it was dumped at the landfill.

It is hard to see the two factions agreeing shortly. The council spokesperson seems irritated that Howells is costing Newport council and local taxpayers time and money. However, Howells says that if only the council had entertained his excavation requests, "Newport would look like Dubai." Currently, it still looks like Newport.