James Howells, the man who accidentally discarded a hard drive containing the encrypted keys to his 8,000BTC account back in 2013 (news at the time stated 7,500BTC), has filed a lawsuit against the Newport city council seeking damages of approximately £500 million. This is due to the council’s refusal to allow him to excavate the landfill to retrieve the discarded hard drive.
Howells mentioned that he does not actually want to claim damages from the city council, but rather wants to pressure them into granting him permission to excavate the landfill. If granted permission, he and his team will cover all expenses themselves, and also offer a 10% cut to the city council if the hard drive is recovered.
Two years ago, Howells had already outlined plans to excavate the landfill to retrieve the hard drive using a similar approach, but the city council did not accept his proposal.
The price of Bitcoin has since surged, making the value of this hard drive skyrocket to an estimated £17 billion.
Source: Yahoo! News
James Howells announces plans to excavate the hard drive in 2022.
TLDR: James Howells seeks to retrieve a hard drive containing 8,000BTC, valued at approximately £17 billion, by filing a lawsuit against the Newport city council for refusal to allow him to excavate the landfill where it was discarded.
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