Who is Richard Heart? The record, by date

The whole story, on film

We made a documentary of the whole story. This page is the short version of it: the same record, by date, with a source for every line.

Who he is

Richard Heart is the name used by Richard James Schueler, a United States citizen who lived in Finland for years.

He launched HEX in December 2019. In 2021 and 2022 he gathered funds for PulseChain and PulseX through what he called a sacrifice: people sent crypto and were told to expect nothing in return. PulseChain went live in May 2023.

What he built

• HEXA contract on Ethereum, live since December 2019. Holders lock their tokens for a time they choose and are paid in newly made HEX. Ending early costs a penalty.
• PulseChainA hard fork of Ethereum that runs as its own chain, with its own coin, PLS. Live since May 2023.
• PulseXThe exchange on PulseChain where most of the chain’s tokens trade.
• ProveXHis newest project, opened with another sacrifice. Reports put what was sent above 400 million dollars. An analyst at Arkham alleged that much of it came through Tornado Cash from wallets linked to Heart himself. That has not been confirmed.

The record, by date

1. December 2019Project

   HEX launches on Ethereum.

2. July 2021Project

   The PulseChain sacrifice opens. Its first phase sends donations to SENS Research Foundation, a medical research charity, which reports about 20 million dollars within two days.

3. February 2022

   The Enigma, a black diamond of 555.55 carats, sells at Sotheby’s for about 4.3 million dollars. Heart says he is the buyer and renames it the HEX.com diamond.

4. May 2023Project

   PulseChain goes live as a hard fork of Ethereum at block 17,233,000.

5. 31 July 2023Legal

   The SEC sues Heart, HEX, PulseChain and PulseX in a federal court in New York. It alleges unregistered offerings that raised more than a billion dollars, and that at least 12 million of it was spent on luxury goods.

6. 13 September 2024Legal

   Helsinki District Court orders him detained in his absence. Police suspect aggravated tax fraud between June 2020 and April 2024, of several hundred million euros, and an assault in 2021.

7. December 2024Legal

   Interpol issues a Red Notice at Finland’s request. Europol lists him among Europe’s most wanted fugitives.

8. January 2025Legal

   Finnish police say they seized about twenty luxury watches from a home in Espoo, worth around 2.6 million euros.

9. 28 February 2025Legal

   Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismisses the SEC’s case. The SEC had not shown that the court had jurisdiction over him.

10. April 2025Legal

    The SEC does not file an amended complaint, and the case ends.

11. May 2026Legal

    Helsingin Sanomat reports that Finnish police have offered him a way back: return voluntarily, and the case could go to plea negotiations.

12. 14 October 2026Legal

    Turkish media report that he was detained at a home in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, by Istanbul police with Turkey’s intelligence agency MİT, on the Red Notice Finland requested, and taken in for questioning. Turkey’s justice minister confirmed it three days later.

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What the SEC dismissal means

The SEC alleged that HEX, PulseChain and PulseX were securities sold without registration, and that Heart had promoted returns as high as 38 percent. These were allegations. No court tested them.

The case was dismissed because the SEC had not connected his conduct closely enough to the United States. The court did not rule on whether the tokens are securities.

So the dismissal is not a finding of innocence, and it is not a finding of guilt. It ended with no fine, no settlement and no admission.

The Finnish case

In Finland he is a suspect. No charge has been tried and no court has convicted him. Yle reported that he stood 24th on Finland’s public list of incomes, with 15.2 million euros of capital income in one year.

A Red Notice is a request to police worldwide to locate a person and hold them for extradition. It is not a conviction, and it is not an international arrest warrant.

His name has since left Europe’s most wanted list: it was not there when this page was last checked. What remains is Interpol’s Red Notice, which now names one charge, aggravated tax fraud.

On 14 October 2026 he was detained in Istanbul on that Red Notice, as Turkey’s justice minister confirmed three days later. What follows is for the Turkish courts: whether he is held, and whether he is sent to Finland. Neither had been made public when this page was last updated, and a detention is not a conviction.

What it means for the chain

PulseChain is run by its validators, and HEX is a contract nobody can change. Neither needs its founder in order to keep working.

Whether that is enough is for each reader to judge. This site takes no side. It reports the record and the prices, and endorses no asset.