Turkish media report that Istanbul authorities have arrested Richard Heart, the founder of HEX, PulseChain and PulseX. The arrest reportedly rests on an Interpol Red Notice requested by Finland, but no official confirmation is available.
Richard Heart is the pseudonym of Richard James Schueler, 47. He acts as the central public figure behind three linked crypto projects. They include the HEX token, the Ethereum fork PulseChain and the decentralized exchange PulseX that runs on it. On PulseX, users swap tokens without a central intermediary. Turkish media call him "Balina James," which translates as "Whale James." Finland obtained a Red Notice against him in December 2024. In addition, Europol has listed him on its "Europe's Most Wanted" list since then. A Red Notice, however, is not an international arrest warrant. It merely asks authorities to locate a wanted person and arrest them provisionally. According to the reports, the arrest took place early in the morning in Istanbul's Beşiktaş district. At the same time, police detained his wife, whom Turkish media identify only by the initials A.K.
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Dawn arrest of Richard Heart: what Turkish media report from Beşiktaş
Turkish reports say several state agencies carried out the operation jointly. They name the intelligence agency MİT as well as the intelligence and financial crimes units of the Istanbul police. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office coordinated the operation. Before the raid, investigators had placed the Beşiktaş address under technical and physical surveillance. Besides the English-language Daily Sabah, the newspapers Sözcü, Karar and Takvim also reported on the operation.
If the reports are accurate, the list of seized items is long. Specifically, officers reportedly seized around a dozen mobile phones, several laptops, graphics cards and computer cases. Several Turkish reports also list three pistols, four long guns, seven magazines and 1,360 rounds of ammunition. Moreover, the reports mention two drones and gold jewelry. Sözcü and Takvim count 64 luxury watches, 53 of them Rolex and 11 Patek Philippe. The cash figures differ. Some Turkish reports put the sum at USD 600,000, EUR 2,600 and 50,000 Turkish lira. Sözcü and Takvim, however, cite around USD 4 million. Consequently, there is no way to verify independently which amount is correct.
All details come from Turkish media. Some of them, including Sabah and Takvim, count as close to the government. So far, the authorities have not issued an official statement. Likewise, no Turkish indictment, arrest warrant from a Turkish court or extradition request has become public. An international crypto news outlet that picked up the case also points to the pending official confirmation.
Finland seeks Heart over tax offenses and assault
The legal basis for the arrest lies in Finland. Helsinki police have been investigating Schueler since 2024 on suspicion of evading private and business taxes. At the core are discrepancies between his reported income and the estimates of the Finnish Tax Administration. According to Europol, he allegedly failed to file business tax returns and reported incomplete income in pre-filled tax returns. The EU police agency puts the allegedly evaded taxes at "hundreds of millions of euros." Furthermore, Finnish investigators accuse him of assaulting a 16-year-old.
Interpol published the Red Notice in December 2024 at Finland's request. In the same month, Europol added the founder to its "Europe's Most Wanted" list. Heart later commented on the listing on X, saying it felt great to be wanted. Legally, however, a Red Notice has limited effect. It replaces neither court proceedings nor a decision on extradition.
The coverage in parts of the Turkish press stands out. Daily Sabah attributes the arrest to "international crypto fraud," citing Turkish reports. Yet for the 2024 Red Notice, the same newspaper itself names tax fraud and assault as the grounds. These are exactly the allegations Finnish investigators make, and investor fraud is not among them. Some Turkish outlets such as Takvim mix up the Finnish case with earlier allegations by the US securities regulator. No court has convicted Schueler so far.
Why the SEC lawsuit against Heart ended in 2025
In July 2023, the US securities regulator SEC filed a lawsuit against Schueler and against HEX, PulseChain and PulseX. The agency accused him of unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities that allegedly raised more than USD 1 billion. On top of that, the SEC brought a fraud charge. Schueler allegedly spent at least USD 12 million on luxury goods. These included sports cars, watches and the 555-carat black diamond "The Enigma." The lawsuit thus targeted the entire project environment around Heart, not just the man himself.
In February 2025, the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York dismissed the lawsuit. The ruling came from Judge Carol Bagley Amon. The decisive factor was a lack of personal jurisdiction. In the court's view, the SEC had not sufficiently shown that Heart's online statements specifically targeted the US. Globally available internet content was not enough. The court left open whether the case involved securities at all. Initially, the SEC received 20 days to amend its complaint, a deadline the court extended to April 2025. When the extended deadline expired, the agency finally stated it would not amend the lawsuit. That ended the case. Heart's lawyer David Kirk later called the outcome a complete victory for his client.
The dismissal therefore does not amount to an acquittal, nor does it confirm the allegations. For crypto founders with a global audience, the court's standard matters most. Under that standard, online communication accessible worldwide does not by itself establish US jurisdiction. Based on the available information, the Istanbul arrest has no connection to the US case. Instead, it rests on the Red Notice requested by Finland.
Whether Finland obtains Heart from Turkey is unclear
Turkey itself decides on any extradition to Finland. The Red Notice does not bind Ankara, and the request creates no obligation to hand him over. How Turkish courts would rule on an extradition request is therefore unclear. Also, no such request from Finland has become public so far. Nor is it clear whether the Turkish judiciary will open its own proceedings against Schueler. Until a verdict, the presumption of innocence applies to him in all proceedings.
By press time, there was no public confirmation from the Istanbul prosecutor's office or the Turkish Interior Ministry. The same applies to Interpol and the Finnish authorities, whose request originally led to the Red Notice. As a result, the information so far rests solely on media reports from Turkey. Ultimately, the case will only become verifiable with an official statement from Istanbul or an extradition request from Helsinki.
