Richard Heart, the founder of the HEX, PulseChain and PulseX crypto projects, was taken into custody in Istanbul on Wednesday, according to Turkish media. The daily Sözcü reported that Turkey’s intelligence agency (MIT) and Istanbul police picked him up in a dawn raid on a home in the city’s Beşiktaş district. The Ihlas News Agency (IHA), in a report carried by Daily Sabah, said his wife, identified only as A.K., was detained with him after police kept the address under surveillance.
No statement from Turkish police, prosecutors or ministries could be found as of early Thursday, and neither Heart nor PulseChain has commented publicly. The Turkish reports describe police custody; none has reported a court-ordered arrest, a release or an extradition request.
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Finland’s Red Notice
Both outlets name him as Richard James Schueler, Heart’s legal name. IHA linked the operation to an Interpol Red Notice issued at Finland’s request. The notice was first reported in December 2024. A Red Notice asks police in other countries to locate and provisionally arrest someone; it is not an arrest warrant, and each country decides whether to act on it.
Finnish authorities remanded Heart in absentia in September 2024 on suspicion of tax evasion between 2020 and 2024 and of assaulting a 16-year-old in February 2021, according to Europol’s most-wanted listing.
Reports Differ on the Seizure
Sözcü, citing broadcaster TV100, put the haul at $4 million in cash and 64 luxury watches, along with jewelry, firearms and crypto mining equipment. Journalist Çağdaş Evren Şenlik wrote on X that officers found $600,000, 24 watches, 20 gold bracelets, three pistols and four rifles. IHA listed phones, laptops, graphics cards, guns, two drones, gold bracelets and cash in several currencies, without totals. No official inventory has been published.Sözcü said the SEC accuses Heart of embezzling $1.5 billion, and Şenlik wrote that he faces the same accusation in the U.S. When it sued in 2023, the SEC said in a press release that offerings by Heart and three entities he controlled “raised more than $1 billion in crypto assets from investors,” and alleged that he misappropriated at least $12 million. Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed the case in February 2025 for lack of jurisdiction, writing that the alleged misappropriation ran through wallets and platforms “none of which were alleged to have any connection with the United States.” The SEC said it would not refile, and the court docket was closed in May 2025.
HEX on Ethereum fell about 32% and PulseX about 36% in the 24 hours to 12:42 a.m. ET Thursday, according to CoinGecko data, while bitcoin fell about 3% and ether about 5%.
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