British cryptocurrency investor James Howells became infamous for accidentally throwing the hard drive containing the passkeys to his $725 million fortune in the trash. The passkeys ended up in a landfill and a movie studio recently secured the right to film a documentary about Howells’ quest to recover his fortune.
Cryptocurrency is no different from any other investment in the sense that the earlier you buy in, the more upside there is. Howells had the presence of mind to buy Bitcoin when cryptocurrency was in its infancy, and still relatively affordable. In May, Howells told the BBC he had amassed 8,000 Bitcoins by 2013, and they were trading at around $950 each by year’s end. At that point, his crypto fortune was worth roughly $7.6 million.
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According to the BBC, the hard drive with the digital passkeys to Howells’ crypto fortune was inadvertently thrown away at some point in 2013. The incident occurred during a routine cleaning at his house in England, and although Howells insists to the BBC that his girlfriend threw the hard drive away, it doesn’t matter who threw it out. The end result was still the same.
Without the digital keys on the hard drive, Howells was permanently locked out of his Bitcoin account and a potential multi-million dollar payday. A panicked Howells took desperate measures to find the missing hard drive. He told the BBC he tracked its location down to a city-owned landfill. Unfortunately for Howells, finding the hard drive’s approximate location was the easy part. Actually getting the hard drive proved to be much more difficult.
First, he petitioned for permission to search the landfill for his missing hard drive. When that was denied, he sued the city for the right to recover the hard drive or be compensated for the loss. Bitcoin’s value surged while Howells’ lawsuit was playing out in court, and the BBC estimates it was worth roughly $725 million when the UK High Court threw his case out.
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By that point, Howells’ story had become international news, and crypto traders viewed his situation as a cautionary tale about the dangers of mishandling your crypto fortune. Howells could do nothing but lick his wounds and wonder what might have been. Today, bitcoins are trading at roughly $108,000, meaning Howells’ 8,000 coins would be worth nearly $8 billion.
It isn’t difficult to imagine how an enterprising filmmaker might want to tell Howells’ story to the world. “Every man and his dog wanted to film this,” Howells told the BBC. He said he received hundreds of offers from filmmakers worldwide. Howells didn’t drop names, but he did say some of the inquiries came from production companies with BAFTAs and Emmys on their shelves.
However, many of those overtures also came while Howells’ case was still winding its way through the legal process. “The timing wasn’t really right with the legal battles,” said Howells. That all changed once the High Court threw out his case. In May, LEBUL, a Los Angeles-based production company, announced it had secured the rights to tell Howells’ story. They are planning to produce a docuseries, a podcast, and a short film chronicling Howells’ misadventures.
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The movie, to be titled “The Buried Bitcoin: The Real-Life Treasure Hunt of James Howells, he he said. “It will follow the live treasure hunt if you will, because even though the court has said no to me – I’m not giving up the fight,” Howells added. He adamantly believes that there may be a way to recover his hard drive. However, the Newport City Council has announced plans to close the landfill.
Howells is interested in buying it. He says the filmmakers will use CGI to reveal his “high-tech” plan to search the landfill and recover the hard drive. “This is the first sort of time that I’ve been able to show the world exactly what we want to do at the landfill site,” he said. “Once people have viewed this documentary, they won’t think this is a crazy plan, and they’ll think it is very achievable.”
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Movie Studio Secures Rights To Tell Tale Of Crypto Investor Who Accidentally Threw Away Digital Keys To His $725 Million Fortune originally appeared on Benzinga.com.
