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Tag: purchase

  • Man offering to purchase landfill to find lost Bitcoin hard drive worth millions

    Man offering to purchase landfill to find lost Bitcoin hard drive worth millions

    MARA CEO Fred Thiel weighs in on MARA getting debanked, the digital currency industry and President Donald Trump’s efforts to make the U.S. the ‘crypto capitol of the world.’

    A man is raising the stakes in his years-long battle to get back a hard drive that contains a discarded bitcoin key worth somewhere around $800 million by offering to purchase a landfill in Great Britain in an effort to find the wallet before it closes down. 

    James Howells has begged and pleaded with the Newport City Council, in South Wales, to gain access to the mountains of waste to find the hard drive that was accidentally thrown away in 2013, the New York Times reported. 

    “Seems like a better plan for me and the city,” Howells told the newspaper, noting that he envisions clearing out the trash and converting the site to a park, or possibly making it a dump site again. “The landfill gets cleaned. I get to dig for my hard drive.”

    ROBINHOOD CEO TALKS BITCOIN’S $100K MILESTONE, SHARES OPTIMISM OVER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

    Bitcoin is the world’s largest cryptocurrency. (Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images / Getty Images)

    He previously offered to fully fund the excavation process and share 25% of the recovered Bitcoin with the Newport City Council. At the time, a judge stated that Howells had “no reasonable grounds” for bringing the claim and that there was “no realistic prospect” of success if the case were to proceed to a full trial.

    Now the city is planning to close the landfill for good. 

    Howells, a computer science analyst, accidentally discarded the hard drive with a pile of trash. He was cleaning out his office in 2013 when he left it with other items destined for the dump. A miscommunication with his partner at the time led to the drive being gathered up and taken to the landfill, the Times reported. 

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    The Digital Chamber founder and CEO Perianne Boring details new findings around the SEC acting as a ‘merit regulator.’

    To his misfortune, the hard drive, a backup from an old gaming computer, contained the only copy of his 51-character private key, used to access Bitcoin wallets. In the late 2000s, when cryptocurrency was in its infancy, Howell had mined it as a hobbyist. 

    However, he realized his mistake months later, as well as the fact that the Bitcoin wallet was worth millions. He’s been trying to get it back ever since. 

    Despite his attempts, the Newport City Council has suggested that the chances of Howells recovering the 12-year-old wallet are slim. 

    Bitcoin Cash

    A novelty Bitcoin token during the NFT. A man in Britain is offering to purchase a local landfill in an effort to search for a lost Bitcoin hard drive he accidentally threw away more than a decade ago.  (Photographer: Timothy Fadek/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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    “This needle is very, very, very valuable — $800 million,” Howells said “which means I’m willing to search every piece of hay in order to find the needle.”

    FOX Business’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report. 

  • Pelosi discloses sales of Nvidia and Apple shares, purchase of Alphabet and Amazon

    Pelosi discloses sales of Nvidia and Apple shares, purchase of Alphabet and Amazon

    Check out what’s clicking on FoxBusiness.com.

    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reported several stock trades on Inauguration Day that were made in December and early January involving several of the world’s largest tech companies, an industry her husband Paul has traded in before. 

    Congressional stock trading disclosures, known as periodic transaction reports, cover trades made by both the member of Congress and a spouse.

    Ian Krager, a spokesperson for the former speaker, told FOX Business, “Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”

    NANCY PELOSI’S HUSBAND SOLD MORE THAN $500K IN VISA STOCK AHEAD OF DOJ ACTION

    Pelosi’s disclosure showed the purchase of 50 call options for Alphabet, the parent company of Google, along with 50 call options for Amazon, according to her latest periodic transaction report filed with the clerk of the House of Representatives. 

    Both sets of call options have a strike price of $150 and were valued between $250,001 and $500,000. Call options give investors the right to buy shares of a company at a specific price.

    Ticker Security Last Change Change %
    AAPL APPLE INC. 223.83 +1.19 +0.53%
    NVDA NVIDIA CORP. 147.07 +6.24 +4.43%
    GOOGL ALPHABET INC. 198.37 +0.32 +0.16%
    AMZN AMAZON.COM INC. 235.01 +4.30 +1.86%

    The disclosure showed the sale of 10,000 shares of Nvidia along with 31,600 shares of Apple on Dec. 31. After the sale, Paul Pelosi bought 50 more Nvidia call options on Jan. 14 that had a strike price of $80 in a trade that was in the range between $250,000 and $500,000. He also exercised 500 call options for Nvidia on Dec. 20 that had a strike price of $12 and were due to expire that day. 

    That trade was in the range between $500,000 and $1 million.

    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reported new stock trades involving notable tech companies. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

    The former speaker’s disclosure also noted several other investments that occurred in the last month, including that 140 call options were exercised for 14,000 shares of Palo Alto Networks at a strike price of $100 that were due to expire Dec. 20 in a trade reported as being between $1 million and $5 million.

    Pelosi also disclosed the purchase of 50 call options of Tempus AI with a $20 strike price, as well as 50 call options of Vistra Corp. with a $50 strike price, on Jan. 14. The Vistra purchase was in the $500,000 to $1 million range, while Tempus was between $50,000 and $100,000.

    Ticker Security Last Change Change %
    VST VISTRA CORP 186.85 +1.41 +0.76%
    TEM TEMPUS AI 50.45 +2.81 +5.90%

    BIPARTISAN GROUP OF SENATORS REACHES AGREEMENT TO BAN LAWMAKERS FROM TRADING STOCKS

    Paul and Nancy Pelosi

    Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and husband Paul Pelosi attend the Vanity Fair Oscars Party at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California, on March 10, 2024. (Michael Tran/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

    Investments made by Paul Pelosi have attracted scrutiny amid mounting calls for members of Congress and their immediate family members to be banned from stock trading. 

    Ticker Security Last Change Change %
    V VISA INC. 323.54 -0.07 -0.02%

    Last fall, Paul Pelosi sold over $500,000 in Visa stock ahead of a Justice Department antitrust suit against the credit card giant. Earlier last year, an analysis estimated that he made the couple nearly $4 million in a six-month period off of Nvidia call options he bought in November 2023.

    Lawmakers’ spouses can trade in companies or industries their partner may help regulate, but it’s illegal for members of Congress and their family members to profit from inside information.

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    Members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle have proposed legislation in recent years that would ban lawmakers and their family members from owning stock. Bipartisan bills to that end were developed in the Senate during the last Congress, but neither became law before the end of the 118th Congress, leaving the issue to the current Congress.

    FOX Business’ Breck Dumas contributed to this report.