British Man Who Accidentally Lost 1 Trillion Won in Bitcoin Files Lawsuit Saying "I Dug Through the Trash"

"10% Donation" Proposal... City Council Calls It "Bribery Offering"

A legal dispute has arisen between the owner and a local council in the UK over the search of a landfill site for a hard disk drive containing Bitcoin worth over 1 trillion won.

According to a report by the BBC on the 3rd (local time), James Howells claims that a digital wallet containing Bitcoin worth ?600 million (approximately 1.0754 trillion won) at current value was discarded along with a hard disk drive at the Docksway landfill due to a partner's mistake in 2013.

Howells is pushing for excavation work at the landfill to find the drive, but after facing opposition from the city council, he has initiated legal proceedings. Howells is demanding that the city council either grant access to the landfill or pay compensation of ?495 million (approximately 887.2 billion won).

On the morning of the 4th, the Bitcoin price is displayed at Bithumb Lounge Gangnam branch in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

However, Newport City Council argues that the items in the landfill belong to the local authority, so it has no obligation to excavate the landfill at Howells' request.

At a hearing on whether to refer the case to a formal trial, the council requested the dismissal of Howells' claim to sue the council. The council also claimed that Howells' offer to donate 10% of the discarded Bitcoin to the local community amounted to an attempt to bribe.

James Goody, the council’s lawyer, emphasized, "No one is above the law, and the council acts according to the law; it has no obligation to mediate claims that are harmful to the public interest."

On the other hand, Howells' lawyer, Dean Armstrong, dismissed the council’s bribery allegation as "unfortunate and meaningless," asserting that Howells has the right to access the landfill to recover the Bitcoin. He added that they have already developed an excavation plan based on considerable expertise and are demanding clarification of the ownership of the Bitcoin.