He lost his court battle to force the local government running the dump to allow him to dig the last I heard. So I doubt it, he wasn't even allowed to really try.

Good chance those coins are 100% traceable. They were lost in the days before good privacy tools like mixers, and the database of the biggest exchange MtGox was fully leaked so everyone knows the real name, email, bank details, and date of birth of the owner of every old coin.

Very pleased I disposed of all mine long ago, and the Blockchain shows that so nobody tries to kidnap me for the keys.

In the early days, a pentium 486 in your garage could have made these coins in a few months.

And you don't need an exchange to transfer coins.

No one knows who owns these wallets... yet. That's why they are mysterious.

Plenty of address reuse happened back then