Cointime

Download App
iOS & Android

SEC serves suit to evasive Richard Heart in Finland, but not in person

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission said it served its lawsuit to HEX founder Richard Schueler — aka Richard Heart — at his house in Finland’s capital of Helsinki.

In a Dec. 11 New York District Court filing, the SEC said it served Heart through substitute service on Oct. 31 — an alternative for when a suit can’t be personally delivered to the defendant typically due to difficulties in locating them.

The process server said they made several failed attempts over nearly seven weeks starting Sept. 13 to personally serve Heart through calls, texts, letters, and attempts to reach him in person at his Helsinki residence.

TSEC's notice of service to Heart. Source: CourtListener

The SEC sued Heart in July, alleging he made over $1 billion selling Hex, PulseChain (PLS), and PulseX (PSLX), which the agency claimed were unregistered securities.

It also claimed Heart defrauded investors in the U.S. and overseas by misappropriating at least $12 million of their funds to buy a “555-carat diamond, expensive watches, and high-end automobiles.”

In an early November status report to the court, the SEC said it could not find Heart since Aug. 22 to serve its suit despite knowing he was somewhere in Helsinki

Related: Terra co-founder Do Kwon will stay in Montenegro until February: Report

While Heart has kept his whereabouts closely guarded, it hasn’t stopped him from remaining active online.

Since the SEC’s Nov. 21 status report, Heart has made over 40 X (Twitter) posts, concerning current crypto-related events such as Binance’s settlement with the Department of Justice in November, Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, and updates on Do Kwon.

HEX is down 81.5% over the past year and 99% since its Sept. 19, 2021, all-time high of $0.5, per CoinGecko data.

SEC
Comments

All Comments

Recommended for you

  • A British court has postponed the final sentencing of Wen Jian, a British-Chinese national involved in the country's largest Bitcoin money laundering case, until May 24.

    On May 11th, it was reported that Jian Wen, a 42-year-old British Chinese citizen, was found guilty of "participating in arranging money laundering" in the UK's largest Bitcoin money laundering case. He could be sentenced to up to 14 years in prison. Jian Wen's defense lawyer, Mark Harries, stated that due to the judge's busy schedule, the UK court has postponed Jian Wen's final sentencing, which was originally scheduled for May 10th, to May 24th.

  • Web3 startup Star Nest completes $6 million in Pre-A round of financing

    Hong Kong Web3 music startup Star Nest announced that it has completed a $6 million Pre-A round of financing, led by Chuangqi International Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed company Guofu Innovation. Star Nest will collaborate with Armonia Meta Chain to develop the Star Nest SpaceStar metaverse game, which includes music, role-playing, and social features.In addition, Star Nest plans to launch its NEST project in the third quarter of 2024. Nest will receive 2.1 billion NEST tokens tailored for the project, and Star Nest will use the NEST token to build a more complete music industry token economic system. The NEST token will be widely used for purchasing performance tickets, chain game cooperation, metaverse consumption, governance voting, and other activities.

  • Over $594 million worth of PYTH is staked

    According to Dune data,  there are currently 1,201,167,362 PYTH tokens in the staked state, with a total staked value exceeding $594 million. The number of PYTH stakers has reached 151,211.

  • US Department of Justice: Tornado Cash indictment has nothing to do with "free speech"

    On May 11th, the US Department of Justice explained why the motion to dismiss the criminal case against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm was invalid. The Department of Justice reiterated that their indictment was not related to whether the Tornado Cash computer code had freedom of speech or was protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. The defendant was not charged for publishing computer code, but for using it to facilitate profitable illegal activities.

  • USDC circulation decreased by $100 million in the past week, with a total circulation of $33 billion

    According to official data,as of May 9th, Circle has issued approximately $2 billion USDC and redeemed approximately $2 billion USDC in the past 7 days, with a decrease in circulation of approximately $100 million. The total circulation of USDC is $33 billion, with a reserve of $33.1 billion, including approximately $3.3 billion in cash and Circle Reserve Fund holding approximately $29.8 billion.

  • SEC rejects Coinbase's request for appeals court ruling on cryptocurrency rules

    The US SEC has rejected Coinbase's request to appeal to the court to review whether traditional securities rules are applicable to cryptocurrencies. In its application, Coinbase stated that it hoped the appeals court would consider whether the Howey test, which has long been used for securities evaluation, should be applied to digital assets. However, the SEC pointed out that Coinbase has not successfully demonstrated the need for such an evaluation. The SEC stated that Coinbase is attempting to create a "new legal test," but this attempt was rejected by the court. The court found that Coinbase's arguments lacked consistency and did not successfully demonstrate the existence of decisive issues. Currently, the judge responsible for hearing the SEC's case against Coinbase will make a ruling on Coinbase's intermediate appeal motion.

  • Colombian President Suspected of Accepting $500,000 in Illegal Crypto Donations

    Colombian President Gustavo Petro is suspected of accepting over $500,000 in digital token donations from a fraudulent cryptocurrency project during his 2022 election campaign. A former contractor revealed that the illegal donation occurred during a meeting in February 2022 that discussed the advantages of cryptocurrency and the possibility of working with the government. This allegation is one of the latest charges faced by President Petro during his election campaign, with the Colombian Prosecutor's Office investigating his campaign last year.

  • Fed's Kashkari: The bar for another rate hike is high, but it cannot be ruled out

    The Federal Reserve's Kashkari expressed a cautious attitude towards restrictive monetary policy; he is adopting a wait-and-see attitude towards future monetary policy; he is in a wait-and-see state to see if inflation is stagnating; the threshold for raising interest rates again is high, but this possibility cannot be ruled out; if inflation data supports it, the Fed will maintain interest rates.

  • US Court to hear proposed remedies from Terraform Labs, Do Kwon in May

    The SEC proposed that Do Kwon and Terraform pay roughly $5.3 billion in disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties, while the firm’s team suggested only $1 million.

  • SEC breaks from past policy guidelines in Uniswap crackdown

    The U.S. SEC Wells notice against Uniswap raises questions about consistency in policy enforcement.