Lost Bitcoins Man is still trying

Semple said:
If I'm reading that correctly one of the main reasons the judge threw out the claim was because he lost the drive in 2013 but only bought the claim to court in 2024 - 11 years later, and clearly too late.

Hopefully that makes any chance of an appeal a non-starter. I also hope the council can pass their legal fees so far onto the claimant and that his backers now disappear as little chance of ever winning this case.

This guy will never move on from this though, I can see this eating away at him in another 50 years. Hopefully that will at least stop all the news stories bringing this up every time Bitcoin pumps.
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After 11 years in a rubbish tip its almost certainly toast anyhow it'll be corroded to buggery. He's lost his mind
 
Will Gill said:
I bought four domino's pizzas with two bitcoins, £36k per pizza, nom nom
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Ha. The most expensive meal of your life.

I'm kind of glad I never had any/mined any in its infancy (I almost did), because likewise I probably would have bought something with them, or sold them when they were only worth a couple of hundred each.
 
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Glanza said:
www.mylondon.news

Man who accidentally threw away £600 million in Bitcoin finally admits defeat

He appealed for help from US President-Elect Donald Trump
www.mylondon.news www.mylondon.news
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This bit is interesting - it's an omission (not addressing the claim) rather than a negation of his position but still I guess he'd have liked to have had some legal ruling stating the wallet is his which he could then presumably use as the basis of some crypto project. Presumably, he was hoping to grab a million or two that way?

James said one omission from the judge had been 'extra painful' as he refused to acknowledge him as the owner of the coins - taking away the option to 'tokenise' them in the future. He said: "The coins have never moved. It would become like a vault where the gold is stored and I would create a new asset in order to trade in public. The value of the new crypto would be linked to the wallet address forever. I was hoping to salvage something from this. Using tokenisation to turn to the coins into a new asset. Unfortunately the judge refused to grant me ownership of the bitcoins as part of the order."

He continued: "Newport District Council own the physical harddrive but they don't own the Bitcoins. But the judge didn't say in his ruling 'James Howells owns the Bitcoin' which was the stance originally agreed even with the council. That would have given me some hope for the future - a small glimmer of hope that although I could not do the dig I could re-focus and work on the tokenisation project. The judge just ripped all that out. It was gut-wrenching to be honest. "
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Interesting re: the ownership of the drive too, that's apparently undisputed as Newport District Council; I had previously assumed that the seemingly different accounts re: whether he'd thrown it out or his gf had related to some attempt by him to still claim ownership of the drive itself but I guess that's moot if they both agree that the drive isn't his and only the IP/crypto stores on it is.
 
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I would imagine the "contents" of the drive would be settled via other case law such as if it had been the "contents" of a roll of film, or a mattress that had money hidden in it.
 
im kinda on his side with this. He knows , roughly, what area of the tip that the drive would be in. Its out of the way of the regular day to day operations. He could get a JCB in there and just start chipping away at it without getting in the way of anyone. The drive is sealed, so while the case might be knakcered, the discs should still be ok? why not just let him get on with it.

But yeah, Trump. ok sure.
 
FlamBango said:
why not just let him get on with it.
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You can't 100% confirm where it is in the landfill.

Also, if he killed himself doing the dig, council is responsible for it, so yeah it's for the best to not let him get on with it.
Especially given he has no experience in landfills or the removal of material from a landfill.
 
sidimmu said:
You can't 100% confirm where it is in the landfill.

Also, if he killed himself doing the dig, council is responsible for it, so yeah it's for the best to not let him get on with it.
Especially given he has no experience in landfills or the removal of material from a landfill.
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You missed the bit where he has professionals behind him who have done similar stuff to this before.
It isn't just him going in with a shovel.

 
SexyGreyFox said:
I can't stop laughing he tried to get Trump involved :)
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At this point the guy is a loser plain and simple.

Whilst I can empathise of the potential lost fortune, it's now gone for good, and he really should seek professional help to move past this and get on with life before he goes down a dark path with the inevitable.
 
Semple said:
At this point the guy is a loser plain and simple.

Whilst I can empathise of the potential lost fortune, it's now gone for good, and he really should seek professional help to move past this and get on with life before he goes down a dark path with the inevitable.
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i think he is already past that
 
SexyGreyFox said:
You missed the bit where he has professionals behind him who have done similar stuff to this before.
It isn't just him going in with a shovel.
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I think its easy for people to say they'd help, but once they realise the chances of actually recovering it and the amount of time needed to recover the drive, then getting it shipped to a data recovery specialist. They wont spend long doing it.
Too much money for no guaranteed return.
 
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