Richard Heart: HEX Founder Detained in Istanbul on a Finnish Tax Fraud Red Notice

Before dawn on Wednesday 14 October 2026, special operations police entered a house in Besiktas, a wealthy district on the European side of Istanbul, and took an American, 47 according to Turkish reports, into custody. Turkish newspapers called him "Balina James", Whale James. The crypto world knows him as Richard Heart, founder of HEX and PulseChain. His legal name is Richard James Schueler.

According to the Turkish dailies Sozcu, Sabah and Karar, the raid was a joint operation by MIT, Turkey's national intelligence agency, and the Istanbul police, coordinated by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. A woman described as his wife, identified only by the initials A.K., was reportedly detained with him. The basis was an Interpol Red Notice issued at the request of Finland, where police want to question him over alleged aggravated tax fraud and an alleged assault.

Heart has not been convicted of anything, in Finland, Turkey or anywhere else. By the evening of 15 October no Turkish, Finnish or Interpol official had publicly confirmed the detention, and no statement had come from Heart or his lawyers. The Block said it had asked Istanbul police and Interpol for confirmation and had no reply.

What the police reportedly found

Sozcu, citing the broadcaster TV100, reported that officers found about $4 million in cash, 64 luxury watches, jewellery, firearms and a large amount of electronic equipment, including hidden computers and crypto mining machines. Haberler and A Haber broke the watches down as 53 Rolex and 11 Patek Philippe, and A Haber said the cash was vacuum packed in hidden compartments.

A second inventory, carried by Euronews Turkish and attributed to Ekonomim and Sabah, is smaller in cash and more specific about everything else: $600,000, 2,600 euros and 50,000 Turkish lira; 24 watches; 20 gold bracelets and 7 gold chains; 3 pistols, 4 rifles, 7 magazines, 1,360 rounds of ammunition and a dagger; 2 drones; 12 mobile phones, 6 laptops, 8 computer cases, 20 graphics cards and 14 solid state drives. The two lists may describe different stages of the search, or one of them may be wrong. Neither has been published by the police.

Sabah's account of how he was found is also unconfirmed. It says MIT cyber analysts followed suspicious wallet movements and transfers on the blockchain (the public ledger that records every crypto payment) until millions of dollars led to an internet address in Istanbul.

The watches will look familiar to anyone who has watched Heart's videos. The Block noted that some appear to match the 32 he showed off in a 2022 video, which he said were worth $10 million. Luxury is part of the brand. He has posed in Burberry, Gucci and Louis Vuitton for his followers.

What Finland says he did

The Finnish case is the one that matters for Heart's liberty. On 13 September 2024 the Helsinki District Court remanded him in custody in his absence, the national broadcaster Yle reported. Police suspect him of aggravated tax fraud between 2 June 2020 and 2 April 2024, and of assault on 16 and 17 February 2021. Detective Harri Saaristola of the Helsinki police told Yle that the income Heart reported did not match the tax administration's estimates, and that "there are grounds to suspect gross tax evasion". The suspected tax owed runs to several hundred million euros. The investigation began at the request of the Finnish Tax Administration. Yle also reported that the tax authority estimated his 2023 income at 15.2 million euros.

Europol's most wanted listing, quoted by The Block in December 2024, said he failed to file business tax returns for several years. It described the assault allegation as an attack on a 16-year-old: grabbing the victim's hair, dragging them into a stairwell, knocking them down and punching them four or five times in the head.

Interpol's Red Notice followed in December 2024. A Red Notice is not an arrest warrant. It is a request, circulated to 196 member countries, to find and provisionally arrest a person so that the country that wants them can ask for extradition. When the notice became public, Heart wrote on X: "It feels great to be wanted. Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come." He added that he had "never been safer".

In January 2025 Yle reported that Finnish police had seized 20 luxury watches, mostly Rolexes, that they believed were his, left behind in a home in Espoo near Helsinki. Their value was put at about $2.68 million.

HEX, PulseChain and the SEC case he beat

Heart launched HEX on 2 December 2019 and sold it as "the first high-yield blockchain certificate of deposit". The comparison was to a bank CD: lock up HEX for a fixed term of up to 5,555 days and receive more HEX at the end, with penalties for leaving early. Critics pointed out that the extra HEX was simply newly created tokens, so the "interest" came from diluting other holders rather than from any bank lending the money out. HEX reached about $0.44 in 2021. It now trades for a fraction of a cent.

PulseChain, his own copy of the Ethereum blockchain (the network where most crypto apps run), went live on 13 May 2023 with its own coin, PLS. PulseX, a trading venue on it, came with PLSX.

On 31 July 2023 the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the American stock market regulator, sued him in federal court in Brooklyn. The SEC said HEX, PulseChain and PulseX were unregistered securities offerings that raised more than $1 billion, including more than 2.3 million Ether for HEX. It said he and PulseChain misused at least $12 million of investors' money on sports cars, watches and a 555-carat black diamond called The Enigma, reputedly the world's largest.

The case never reached the facts. On 28 February 2025 Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed it, ruling that the SEC had not shown his promotion was aimed at the United States rather than a global audience. The court decided nothing about whether HEX was a security or whether anyone was defrauded. On 21 April 2025 the SEC said it would not file an amended complaint, and the case ended. Heart said he had defeated the SEC completely.

Several Turkish reports this week claimed the SEC accuses him of embezzling $1.5 billion. That is wrong twice over. The SEC's figure was $12 million of alleged misuse, and its lawsuit is over.

Markets and what happens next

©CMZ chart. Data: CoinGecko

HEX fell about 25% on the day, according to The Block. Protos, citing CoinGecko, put the drop at almost 45%. PLS lost about 35% in 24 hours and is down nearly 98% since launch, The Block reported.

Whether he goes to Finland is now a legal question for Turkey. Both countries are parties to the Council of Europe's European Convention on Extradition. Under that treaty, a person held on a provisional arrest can be released if the formal request does not arrive within 18 days, and no later than 40 days. Finland would have to send that request, and a Turkish criminal court would rule on it, with appeals possible. Turkey does not extradite its own citizens, but Heart is not one. As of 15 October no request had been made public. A Haber reported that he was being questioned at Istanbul police headquarters and that Turkish authorities had begun sharing information with Interpol.

For now, the man who told his followers there was nothing anyone could do about it is in a Turkish police station, and his coins are worth less than they were on Tuesday.