A man who accidentally sent $527 million worth of Bitcoin to a garbage dump sues local council for recovery: Report | CoinDesk JAPAN

• Mr Howells, a British man, has filed a legal claim against his local council to recover a hard drive containing 8,000 BTC that he accidentally threw away in 2013.
• Howells assembled a team to excavate the site for 18 to 36 months at a cost of $13 million, followed by a year of restoration work.
• Congress has rejected the request due to environmental concerns.

According to the news site WalesOnline, 39-year-old British man James Howells set out in rural Wales to recover a hard drive containing 8,000 BTC that he accidentally threw away in 2013. filed a legal claim against Congress.

Mr. Howells’ story is well known as a Bitcoin legend. In 2013, Howells accidentally threw away a hard drive containing Bitcoin (BTC) that he had mined in 2009. At the time, it was worth about $1 million (about 150 million yen), but it is now worth about $527 million (about 79.05 billion yen).

For the past decade, Howells has been appealing to Newport Council, the owner of the landfill where the hard drives ended up, to take them back, but he claims they have been “largely ignored”. He is currently suing Parliament for damages of 495 million pounds (approximately 96.5 billion yen, equivalent to 195 yen per pound). This amount is the valuation of 8,000 BTC at its all-time high, which it reached this year.

The case is scheduled to be heard in December, according to reports, but Mr Howells said his aim was to use it to get Congress to agree to the excavation in order to avoid a legal battle.

Howells assembled a team to excavate the site at a cost of $13 million. The team also includes the council’s former landfill chief, who claims to know the specific area where the hard drives are currently located.

Excavation would take 18 to 36 months, followed by an additional year of restoration work, which Congress has rejected due to environmental concerns.

Mr Howells reportedly said: “Despite the problems that councils have had all along, I still give them 10% of the value,” adding: “That’s £41m at today’s rates. 95 million yen), but in the future it could rise to hundreds of millions of pounds.”

｜Translation and editing: Rinan Hayashi
｜画像：bakhrom_media/Pixabay
｜Original text:Man Who Accidentally Sent $527M in Bitcoins to Dump Sues Local Council to Retrieve Them: Report