An IT engineer accidentally lost a fortune of 752 million euros on a landfill years ago. Since then, he has been desperately trying to recover his wealth. After suffering a defeat in court, there is now a glimmer of hope.
The lead image is a symbolic representation.
How did the loss occur? Last year, MeinMMO reported for the first time about James Howells, who has been searching for a lost hard drive for years. The drive contains the key to approximately 8,000 Bitcoins that he accumulated between 2009 and 2013. The current value: about 752 million euros (you can find a converter, for example, at btc-echo.de).
The hard drive ended up in the trash due to a mix-up. Howells and his wife only realized the mistake when it was too late. During his desperate search for the drive, robot dogs were even employed at times.
However, a significant hurdle turned out to be the Newport city administration, which wanted to deny the Welshman access to the local landfill for environmental reasons. This led to a lawsuit. In January 2025, there was another setback for James Howells: the competent court declared that the plaintiff cannot access the landfill to search for his wealth.
A live-action tech thriller from real life
What comes next in the adventure? As bbc.com reports, several production companies have approached James Howells to turn his story into a film. After negotiations ended, the Los Angeles-based entertainment company LEBUL was awarded the project, planning a docuseries, a podcast, and additional short film content to document the Welshman’s mission.
The series titled “The Buried Bitcoin: The Real-Life Treasure Hunt of James Howells” is intended to not only highlight Howells’ loss, his years-long search, and the legal battle but also explore the beginnings of Bitcoin.
Reese Van Allen of LEBUL commented on the project as follows: “This is not just content. It is a live-action tech thriller involving nearly a billion dollars – and LEBUL is proud to present it to the world.”
Filming was scheduled for the summer. The documentary is set to be released in October or November.
Howells hopes that thanks to the documentary, he might still have the opportunity to search for his lost treasure. However, due to the years of upheaval and weather conditions, it seems quite unlikely that the data stored on the hard drive can still be utilized today.
Another bitcoin owner also possesses a large fortune to which he cannot gain access. But here, the major problem is not the city administration, but a missing password. Experts are even offering him help, but he declines: A German has two attempts left to access 222 million euros – an expert wants to help him, but he declines the assistance
