I just reviewed something quite peculiar about Richard Heart and how he managed to secure a legal victory that most crypto projects would never be able to achieve. The SEC dismissed his fraud charges on February 28, and in April they confirmed they would not appeal. He’s now claiming that HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX gained regulatory clarity that almost no other coin has in the United States.

But here’s the interesting part: Richard Heart’s victory appears to be based more on technicalities than on actual innocence. Judge Carol Bagley Amon ruled that because Heart does not live in the United States and his statements about prices were directed to a global audience, the SEC simply lacked jurisdiction. It’s not that he proved he didn’t commit fraud—rather, the court said it was not its place to judge him.

The SEC had accused Heart of using HEX to defraud investors, filing a full complaint in July 2023 against him, his projects, and the DEX PulseX. They alleged violations of securities laws, fraud, and asked that he be barred from participating in any crypto securities offerings. They also noted that Heart spent more than $12 million of the proceeds on luxury watches, sports cars, and a 555-carat diamond ring. The guy literally posted on X showing Louis Vuitton cases with watches valued at 9 million euros.

Now, while Richard Heart celebrates his U.S. win, he has much more serious problems in Europe. Finnish authorities are looking for him for tax evasion and assaulting a minor. In September 2024, Finnish media reported that he was sent to prison in absentia. Helsinki police confiscated millions of euros in luxury watches from a residence in Espoo. Europol is also seeking him for physically assaulting a victim aged 16.

As for the project itself, the crypto community has pointed out for years that HEX has Ponzi-scheme characteristics: promises of 38% annual returns, incentives for bringing in new users, and Richard Heart controlling around 90% of the tokens. The price briefly rose on the news of the dismissal, but looking at the bigger picture, HEX has hardly moved since the legal troubles began. At the close, the token trades at $0.002253, with 24-hour volumes barely exceeding $250,000.

The real question is how long he can keep this going. Richard Heart evaded U.S. regulators through jurisdiction, not because he’s clean. But with active investigations in Europe and a project that seems stalled, the legal victory in the United States could turn out to be rather hollow in the long run.