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It will come as no surprise to anyone that James Howells (38), a computer expert from Wales, still has sleepless nights. The man accidentally threw away a hard drive containing virtual investments totaling around £1.5 billion. He is now demanding through a court that at least an attempt be made to recover the disk from the enormous garbage dump.
James Howells has spoken openly for the first time about ‘the mistake of his life’, and that of his now ex-wife. Because it was she who threw away the bag that contained the hard drive. Only she didn’t know it at the time. Howells had accidentally thrown the drive away after replacing it with another, unusable, drive. However, the hard drive in question contained the only access to his crypto assets, an investment in virtual coins. Experts estimate they would be worth around £1.5 billion by the end of the year. Originally it was about 300 million.
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Howells says he wanted to take the bag to the dump. But when he was already in bed, he had a nagging feeling as if something was wrong. Only he didn’t know what. Just to be sure, he would check the hard drive again the next morning to make sure he hadn’t thrown away the wrong one. “Because I was aware of the value of my investment,” he says.
“But I didn’t get a chance to check it. I would take the garbage bag out on the way to work. But when I got up, it turned out that my ex-partner had already done that in my place. To please me, she thought. But without realizing it, she has thrown away a large fortune.” Howells does not want to say whether the break with his ex-wife has anything to do with the incident, but friends believe it certainly played a role.
Environmental permit
The distraught Howells has since been trying to retrieve the disk from Newport’s municipal dump in Wales. He has even started legal proceedings because the municipality does not agree with his story. His legal battle is partly financed by a group of investors who, if the hard drive is ever found, will share in the profits.
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The municipality has already informed Howells several times that excavations are not possible. First of all, it is unlikely that the drive in question can be recovered somewhere and if that is the case, it is not certain that it will not be damaged and unusable.
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“Such a search is not possible based on the environmental permit that we have. Digging up the garbage dump would have a hugely negative impact on the environment. We have been very clear and consistent in our responses to Mr Howells on this matter. Unfortunately we cannot help him further. Our position has not changed,” said a spokesperson for the mayor.