James Howells (39 years old), living in Newport (UK) bought Bitcoin from the early days of this cryptocurrency.
His private key - a type of digital key used to access the money - is stored on the computer hard drive of the engineer. He removed this hard drive when upgrading his computer and put it in a drawer of his desk.
The hard drive remained in the drawer until 2013 when his wife accidentally threw it away during a cleaning.
According to British media, a woman named Halfina Eddy-Evans admitted that she is Howells' wife and acknowledged that she took the hard drive to the dump in Wales to throw it away. Nevertheless, Eddy-Evans insists she did so at Howells' request.
"The computer component was thrown in a black bag along with other unwanted items. He personally begged me to take it when he said there was a trash bag here that needed to be thrown away. I didn’t know what was inside but still reluctantly left it at the local dump on my way home after dropping my son off at school," Halfina Eddy-Evans said in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail.
The mother of two teenage children also hopes that Howells will soon find the hard drive, not because she hopes to share the money but simply to avoid the hassle.
"People continuously tag me online, with comments about how he lost a fortune. I hope he can find it more than anything. I'm fed up with hearing about it. He is the father of my two sons, but I don't want a penny of that money," Eddy-Evans shared.
Howells has repeatedly petitioned the Newport city council for access to the Docksway landfill to search for the lost hard drive. However, the council declined due to environmental concerns despite Howells offering to donate 25% of the Bitcoin's value (which he has now reduced to 10%).
In October, Howells announced he is suing the Newport city council for damages of £495,314,800 (over 600 million USD).
"In my opinion, the council is holding my property without consent, they don’t even allow me to search for it. The last time I made an offer was a few weeks ago, and they still refused," he said.
After Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, the price of Bitcoin has continuously increased, currently nearing the mark of 95,000 USD. Howells speculates that next year, the amount of Bitcoin on his hard drive could be worth 1 billion British pounds (1.2 billion USD).