Judge rejects man from retrieving Bitcoin from landfill

A decade-long legal battle over a lost Bitcoin fortune has ended in disappointment for James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales.

According to the BBC, the Cardiff High Court dismissed Howells’ case against Newport City Council and denied him access to the landfill where a discarded hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins was found.

The hard drive, which was accidentally thrown away in 2013, is now worth between $700-750 million, while Bitcoin (BTC) recently rose to over $94,000 per unit.

Howells sought permission to excavate the site or receive compensation of £495 million and offered some of the recovered Bitcoin to the council and local community.

However, Judge Keyser KC ruled that there was no “reasonable justification” for the claim, citing environmental concerns and the fact that the contents of the landfill were the property of the municipality.

The landfill reportedly holds 1.4 million tonnes of waste, but Howells claims to have located the hard drive in a 100,000-ton section.

Reacting to the decision, Howells expressed disappointment, describing it as a “kick in the teeth”, according to the BBC.

An early adopter of Bitcoin, Howells launched the cryptocurrency in 2009 when it was worth insignificant. Despite repeated negotiations and convening a team of experts for rescue efforts, the council maintained that excavation was impossible due to environmental regulations.

Although Howells’ ownership of Bitcoin was not challenged, the court’s decision closes one chapter in a saga of missed opportunities and legal hurdles.