A decade-long quest to unearth a Rs 5,900 crore (£569 million) Bitcoin fortune buried in a Welsh landfill has taken an unexpected turn, as the woman who allegedly threw away the hard drive has broken her silence. Halfina Eddy-Evans, ex-partner of James Howells, has admitted to discarding the device but insists she did so at his request.
“Yes, I threw away his rubbish—he asked me to,” Eddy-Evans said in an interview with DailyMail, recounting how she reluctantly dropped off several black sacks, including one containing the hard drive, at the local tip. “I had no idea what was in it.”
Howells, who mined 8,000 Bitcoins in 2009 during the cryptocurrency’s infancy, is locked in a bitter legal battle with Newport City Council. He is seeking permission to excavate the landfill, which contains over 1.4 million tonnes of waste, in the hopes of recovering the lost treasure.
Eddy-Evans, who shares two teenage sons with Howells, described how the hard drive ended up in the trash. At the time, Howells had discarded his malfunctioning laptop, retaining only the hard drive. Believing it had no value, he stashed it away and later instructed Eddy-Evans to dispose of it during a household cleanup.
“I thought he should be running his errands, not me,” she said. “But I did it to help out.”
The fallout from the lost Bitcoin has become a source of exhaustion for Eddy-Evans. “I’d love nothing more than him to find it—not that I want a penny of his money—but it would shut him up,” she remarked.
Howells, now 39, has repeatedly sought permission to dig up the landfill, claiming he has narrowed the hard drive’s location to an area of 100,000 tonnes. He even offered to donate 10% of the fortune to Newport to transform the area into the "Dubai or Las Vegas of the UK."
However, the council has consistently rejected his requests, citing environmental concerns. “Excavation is not possible under our environmental permit, and such work would have a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area,” a Newport City Council spokesperson said.
Undeterred, Howells has filed a £495 million lawsuit against the council, accusing them of “withholding my property without my consent.” A preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 3, where the council aims to have the case dismissed.
The stakes continue to rise as Bitcoin’s value soars, recently hitting a record $80,000 per coin. Howells remains resolute in his mission, calling it a “treasure hunt” with ever-growing rewards.
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