After taking his city's municipal council to court to try to recover a hard drive containing access to $752 million in Bitcoin (BTC) from a landfill, James Howells was refused by the judge. Light on this case which is out of the ordinary.
Judge denies complaint to find 8,000 bitcoin hard drive in landfill
On several occasions already we have mentioned the story of James Howells, a resident of Newport in Wales who, in 2013, saw a hard drive containing the private key securing 8,000 bitcoins end up in the landfill due to a misunderstanding with his love at the time.
Last October, the person concerned decided to take the municipality to court, failing to find common ground, despite the promise of 10% of the loot as reward. However, the judge in charge of the case rejected the case at the first hearing, not seeing it as a reasonable reason to file a complaint:
I also consider that the application would have no realistic prospect of success if it went to trial and that there is no other compelling reason why it should go to trial.
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Indeed, under local laws, said hard drive became the property of the city upon its arrival at the landfill, a landfill containing 1.4 million tonnes of wastealthough James Howells would have managed to identify a research area of 100,000 tonnes.
In this regard, the citizen expressed his disappointment with this decision:
The fact that the case was closed at the first hearing does not even give me the opportunity to explain myself or obtain justice in any form. There would have been so much more that could have been explained in a full trial and that's what I expected. […] This decision took everything from me and left me with nothing. It is the great system of British injustice which strikes again.
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On X, he also reiterated this disappointment, explaining that it was the end of the story ” for now »:
I lost, they won.
Mighty appeal.
See what happens.
It is what it is.
End of story…
For Now!!! 🤬
— James Howells (@howelzy) January 9, 2025
👉 Also in the news — In 2024, more than $3 billion in cryptocurrencies have been lost to hacks and scams
While the legal challenge has been inconclusive and James Howells has failed to reach a resolution with the city council over the past 12 years, it will be interesting to see if he tries once again to achieve his goals. purposes in the future. Perhaps by joining the council himself to try to tip the scales from within?
At the same time as writing these lines, BTC is trading at $94,125 per unit at the time of writing, up 0.4% over 24 hours.
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Source: BBC
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Since 2021, I have devoted my free time to seriously educating myself on cryptocurrencies in order to acquire maximum knowledge and credibility. I often have the opportunity to conduct interviews with influential figures in the blockchain industry. I also conduct in-depth analyzes on Web3 themes to offer exclusive content to Cryptoast readers.
Vincent Maire
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