In 2013, a software engineer from Wales named James Howells was cleaning his office when he accidently threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 BTC. Today, Howells has filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council for 8,000 BTC in damages after they refused his repeated requests to dig up their landfill to find his hard drive. Howells says the lawsuit is merely a way to get permission to dig up the landfill, not a direct claim for damages.
To help make this happen, Howells has assembled an excavation team who will do the work for free, and has offered to share 10 per cent of the value of any recovered BTC with the council. The council has dismissed the lawsuit as ‘frivolous’ and voiced concern that digging could cause environmental damage. It goes to a hearing in December. The lawsuit’s value was based on BTC’s peak price earlier this year, when its value was skyrocketing to historic highs and the 8,000 BTC in question was worth more than half a billion dollars.
Source: Yahoo! Finance
