He sued the municipality for the millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin he threw in the trash.

IT expert James Howells filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council for £495 million after accidentally throwing away a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins (approximately $502,904,000) during a cleaning. Howells, who has been in a years-long struggle to recover the hard drive in a landfill where excavation permits have not been granted due to environmental concerns, also highlights the importance of protecting digital assets.

Wealth in the Landfill: Legal Battle Launched for Lost Bitcoins Worth Billions of Dollars

A hard drive thrown away due to the negligence of an IT expert has turned into a multi-million dollar lawsuit. The expert, named James Howells, accidentally threw away the hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins in 2013. He is now in the spotlight with the lawsuit he filed against Newport City Council.

Howells wanted to excavate the local landfill to find the lost treasure. However, the council repeatedly rejected this request, citing environmental concerns. Howells also claimed that the landfill was filled with hazardous materials such as asbestos, arsenic, and methane, alleging that the area violated environmental permits.

In an effort to persuade the council, Howells offered various proposals, including sharing 10% of the found Bitcoins. However, this attempt also ended in failure. In 2022, he proposed an $11 million search plan, which involved robots searching through 110,000 tons of garbage and would not incur any costs for the council. Nevertheless, the council rejected the proposal, expressing doubts about its legality and feasibility.

This incident once again underscores the importance of securing digital assets. Experts recommend using hardware wallets to protect cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, keeping private keys offline, and storing recovery phrases in secure locations.

Howells' struggle will continue with a court case scheduled for December. This lawsuit demonstrates the significant consequences that individual mistakes and technological issues can have in the digital age. This notable event in the tech world encourages cryptocurrency holders to be more cautious.