Richard Heart, the founder of the HEX cryptocurrency, has been detained in Istanbul on an Interpol Red Notice, according to Turkish media.
Turkish police and the country’s national intelligence agency detained Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, at an address in the Beşiktaş district on Wednesday morning, according to the Turkish news agency IHA, as reported by Daily Sabah. His wife was also detained, the reports said. Police had reportedly been watching the address before the arrest.
The reports said officers seized phones, laptops, graphics cards, weapons, drones, gold jewellery and cash. None of these details has been independently confirmed.
The notice
The Red Notice was issued in 2024 at the request of Finland, and lists one charge: aggravated tax fraud. That is an allegation, and it has not been tested in court.
A Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant. It is a request for police in other countries to locate and provisionally arrest someone while extradition or similar action is considered. It is not yet clear whether Finland has asked Turkey to extradite Heart, or what happens next.
His US case
Heart has fought and won one major case already. In 2023, the SEC charged him and three entities he controlled, Hex, PulseChain and PulseX, with running unregistered crypto offerings that raised more than $1 billion, and alleged that at least $12 million of investor money was spent on luxury goods.
In February 2025, a federal judge dismissed the complaint for lack of jurisdiction, finding that Heart’s activities were not clearly aimed at US investors. The SEC chose not to amend its case by an April deadline, ending it. Heart’s lawyer called the outcome “a complete victory.”
No response from Heart or his representatives to the reported detention had been published at the time of writing.
