Hex Founder Richard Heart Reported Detained in Istanbul

Hex founder Richard Heart was detained in Istanbul on Wednesday morning, in an operation Turkish media tie to an Interpol Red Notice. Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, was held with his wife in the Beşiktaş district after police monitored the address.

The reports come with a limit the story cannot shake: no Turkish or Finnish authority has publicly confirmed the detention. Police, prosecutors and Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) have not put a statement on the record, and every account traces back to Turkish news coverage. Treat what follows as a reported arrest rather than a settled record.

What the Reports Say About the Operation

The operation is described as a joint effort by MIT and the Istanbul police, coordinated with the city's chief public prosecutor's office, with financial crimes investigators, Interpol staff and special operations officers involved. One version says his trace was found by following his digital footprint, with analysts reading suspicious wallet movements on exchanges and complex blockchain transfers and landing on an Istanbul IP address.

What officers found is where the accounts split.

The Seized Inventories Do Not Match

No official itemised list or total valuation has been published, and the reported hauls differ on almost every line:

• Watches: one account counts 53 Rolex and 11 Patek Philippe, another says 64 luxury watches, a third lists 24 watches.
• Cash: about $4 million in vacuum-sealed packages in one report, or $600,000 plus €2,600 and 50,000 Turkish lira in another, or more than 500 million lira of cash and jewellery in a third.
• Electronics: a dozen mobile phones, several laptops, computer cases, 20 graphics cards, SSDs, flash drives, cold wallets, encrypted external disks and crypto mining devices, kept for examination.
• Weapons and valuables: rifles, pistols, 7 magazines, 1,360 rounds of ammunition, a kama, two drones, gold bracelets and gold chain necklaces.

The gap matters. When the same raid produces three different jewellery counts and two different cash totals, the items alone cannot be reported as fact.

A Red Notice Is a Request, Not a Warrant

The detention rests on a Red Notice issued in 2024 at Finland's request. Interpol defines it as a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action, and states plainly that it is not an international arrest warrant.

The single listed charge is aggravated tax fraud. One Turkish account describes the notice as relating to high-value cryptocurrency fraud instead. Interpol's public search does not return the notice by name, so its exact wording rests on the reports rather than on the notice itself.

The Finnish Case Behind the Notice

Finnish police suspect Schueler of gross tax evasion and an assault. The suspected tax evasion covers 2 June 2020 to 2 April 2024, and the suspected assault 16 and 17 February 2021. He was remanded in custody in absentia on 13 September 2024. Police suspect he failed to pay several hundred million euros in taxes to Finland.

Helsinki police detective Harri Saaristola put the reasoning this way:

Based on the very considerable amount of money in question and the long-term and planned nature of the activity, there are grounds to suspect gross tax evasion.

Finnish authorities said his income amounted to more than 15.2 million euros last year, and that the suspected evasion is not related to his capital income. Separately, Europe's most wanted list accuses him of punching a 16-year-old in the face and head. That remains an allegation, and he has not been convicted.

The SEC Case Against Him Ended in 2025

In 2023 the SEC charged Heart and three entities he controlled, Hex, PulseChain and PulseX, over unregistered offerings that raised more than $1 billion, and accused him of misappropriating at least $12 million of offering proceeds for sports cars, watches and a 555-carat black diamond known as The Enigma. A federal judge dismissed the complaint in February 2025 for lack of jurisdiction, finding his activities were not clearly aimed at US investors. The SEC declined to amend by an April deadline, ending the case, which his lawyer called a complete victory.

What It Means for HEX and PulseChain Holders

PulseChain (PLS) fell 44% over the past 24 hours while HEX rose 3.9%, the market data in the reports shows. The two tokens he created moved in opposite directions, and if you hold either, that split is the only price signal the story currently offers.

No statement from Heart, PulseChain or Hex on the detention appeared in the reports. Whether Turkey transfers him is also open: one account says a transfer is under consideration, and no formal extradition request has been made public.

The next concrete signal is whether Turkish prosecutors or Finnish police say anything on the record, and whether a formal extradition or transfer request appears. Until one does, this is Turkish media reporting with no official confirmation behind it.