Richard Heart Detained in Istanbul After Interpol Notice
The founder of Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX was detained based on a Finnish Interpol notice. The case follows earlier SEC charges and allegations tied to tax fraud.
Key Takeaways
- Richard Heart was detained in Istanbul on Wednesday during a joint operation by Turkish police and intelligence services.
- According to local media, the detention happened based on an Interpol Red Notice from Finland.
- Turkish media report the seizure of millions of dollars in cash, luxury watches, firearms, and electronic equipment.
Richard Heart, the founder of the crypto projects Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX, was detained in Istanbul on Wednesday during a joint operation by Turkish police and intelligence services. According to local media, that happened based on an Interpol Red Notice from Finland. Turkish media also report that millions of dollars in cash and luxury goods were found.
Detention in Beşiktaş
Heart, whose official name is Richard James Schueler, was detained along with his wife at a home in the Beşiktaş district, Daily Sabah reported. The newspaper wrote that authorities seized $4 million (€3.6 million) in cash, 64 luxury watches, firearms, and electronic equipment. Turkish authorities have not yet confirmed those figures.
An Interpol Red Notice is an international alert that asks other member countries to locate someone and temporarily detain them while possible extradition is considered. It is not an international arrest warrant; countries decide for themselves whether to act on it under their own laws.
Long-Running Legal Case
The detention fits into a series of legal problems around Heart. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued him and three crypto projects in 2023. The regulator said more than $1 billion (€0.9 billion) had been raised through unregistered securities offerings and that Heart and PulseChain had misused at least $12 million (€10.7 million) in investor funds.
That case was thrown out in 2025 after a judge dismissed the complaint for lack of jurisdiction, because the project was not specifically aimed at U.S. investors, according to the court. In Finland, Heart was also under fire over allegations of tax fraud and assault, which eventually led to the Interpol notice.
What This Means for Crypto
For crypto followers, this case is especially relevant because it shows how quickly legal trouble around founders of major projects can cross borders. Cases like this do not just affect the person involved, but can also draw more attention to the governance and reputation of projects like Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX. That makes this news relevant for European crypto readers too, beyond Turkey and Finland.
Other cases also show how cross-border crypto enforcement can be. For example, India Warns 15 Crypto Exchanges Over AML Rules shows that regulators are increasingly putting pressure on foreign firms when they do not follow anti-money laundering rules.
