A British man named James Howells is currently suing local authorities to recover a hard drive containing 8,000 BTC worth approximately $647 million. And that's exactly the amount he's suing them for — because he's blaming them for not having it.
Back in 2013, Howells' then-partner accidentally threw away the hard drive along with a bunch of other junk. At the time, Bitcoin was already worth just under £1 million, but since then the value of these coins has increased significantly.
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Now, for good reason, he wants to find the hard drive again.
Note that he didn't just come up with this idea. For more than a decade, Howells has been trying to convince the local government to allow him to drill. He says his requests were largely ignored. He has also taken it upon himself to assemble an excavation team to dig through 100 tons of trash to find hard drives.
Howells believes there is an 80 percent chance that if the hard drive can be recovered, the coins on it can be recovered. If all goes well, he offered to give the council 10% of the recovered bitcoins, or the equivalent of $65 million. But the city council rejected his proposal to dig up more than a decade's worth of trash, citing environmental concerns.
The council has published a report, with a spokesperson saying: “The council advised Mr Howells that excavation was not possible under the environmental permits and that work of that nature would have a significant negative environmental impact on the surrounding area. I've told you that many times.” The Council is the only body authorized to carry out activities on the ground. ”
Excavation will cost $13 million and take 18 to 36 months, and it will take another year to restore it to its original condition. Mr Howells said the council would not have to pay any of the cost and would also give 10 per cent if it was found.
Howells said in an interview that the lawsuit wasn't the main thing, he just wanted to “leverage” Congress to get the excavation done. You would think that would get the city council to buy into it, but so far it doesn't seem like they're going to take the bait.
