Howells mined 8,000 Bitcoins in 2009, only to forget about them. The hard drive, containing the digital key to his cryptocurrency fortune, was discarded during a cleanup.
Howells is suing Newport City Council for ₹4,900 crore (£495 million), accusing them of withholding access to the landfill. He’s vowed to fight until he can recover the hard drive.
A woman has reportedly confessed to accidentally discarding the hard drive that holds the key to her ex-boyfriend James Howells’ lost Bitcoin fortune—now valued at a staggering ₹5,900 crore (£569 million).
Halfina Eddy-Evans, the mother of Howells’ two teenage sons, admitted she took the hard drive to a landfill in Newport, Wales, nearly a decade ago. She insists she acted on Howells’ request. “He begged me to take a bag of rubbish to the tip,” Eddy-Evans told MailOnline. “I had no idea what was inside. Losing it wasn’t my fault.”
Howells mined 8,000 Bitcoins in 2009, only to forget about them. The hard drive, containing the digital key to his cryptocurrency fortune, was discarded during a cleanup. Now buried under 100,000 tonnes of waste at a Newport landfill, it remains tantalizingly out of reach.
Howells is suing Newport City Council for ₹4,900 crore (£495 million), accusing them of withholding access to the landfill. He’s vowed to fight until he can recover the hard drive. “This treasure hunt isn’t going away,” he told Fortune. “The value grows every day.”
The council, however, has consistently denied his requests, citing environmental concerns and their inability to grant excavation under existing permits. A spokesperson said, “Excavation is not possible under our environmental permit, and such work would have a huge negative impact on the area.”
Eddy-evans who has been publicly linked to Howells’ plight, says she doesn’t want any of the fortune if it’s recovered. “I hope he finds it, not that I want a penny. I just want him to stop talking about it,” she said, adding, “It’s not helping his mental health.”
Howells has pledged to donate 10% of the fortune to transform Newport into “the Dubai or Las Vegas of the UK” if he succeeds in retrieving the hard drive. For now, his legal battle continues, with a hearing set for early December.