Halfina Eddy-Evans, the ex-girlfriend of James Howells, an IT engineer in Newport, Wales, recently revealed that she had discarded a hard drive containing 8,000 BTC at Howells' request in 2013.
Eddy-Evans explained her role in the incident, saying: "He asked me to throw away unwanted things, including the hard drive. It was not my fault that it was thrown away." The hard drive was discarded when the BTC price was less than $1, and now these BTC are worth more than $716 million. (Daily Mail)
Previously, James Howells was suing the Newport Municipal Council in the UK for £495 million (about $647 million) in damages for accidentally discarding a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins.
Howells tried many times to retrieve the hard drive from the local landfill, but was obstructed by the municipal council, which repeatedly rejected his request to dig the site.
In 2013, he accidentally threw away hard drives containing Bitcoins during a house clearing, which are now worth nearly £500 million.