I just saw that Richard Heart is bragging about a pretty hefty victory against the U.S. SEC. It turns out that recently the court dismissed the fraud charges the regulatory agency brought against him, and now the guy is announcing everywhere that HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX won a battle that almost no crypto project manages to.

The story goes back a long way. In July 2023, the SEC filed a pretty strong lawsuit accusing Richard Heart (whose real name is Richard James Schueler) of securities fraud and registration violations. Basically, the agency alleged that he used HEX to scam investors, making wild promises about incredible returns while spending more than $12 million on luxuries: watches, sports cars, and 555-carat diamond rings. The guy is famous precisely for boasting about his wealth in videos where he shows off collections of watches worth 9 million euros.

But here’s where it gets interesting: Richard Heart’s legal defense focused on a technical point. His team argued that the SEC had no jurisdiction because the activities did not occur within the United States. The judge agreed. Judge Carol Bagley Amon ruled that statements about the HEX price were directed at a global audience—not specifically at U.S. investors. End of story for the SEC.

Now, this doesn’t mean Richard Heart is completely clean. He has serious problems in Europe. Finnish authorities are looking for him for tax evasion and assault of a minor. In September 2024, Finnish media reported that he was sent to prison in absentia. Finnish police confiscated millions in luxury watches from a residence in Espoo, and both Europol and Interpol have him on their most-wanted lists of criminals.

As for HEX itself, the crypto community has been questioning for years whether it’s a Ponzi scheme in disguise. The numbers don’t lie: it promises annual returns of 38%, Richard Heart controls around 90% of the tokens, and the project depends on attracting new users. The price has barely moved since the legal problems began, and transaction volume is practically nil.

The reality is that Richard Heart evaded U.S. regulation more due to a jurisdiction technicality than proven innocence. The question everyone is asking is how long he can keep this up. With Europe breathing down his neck and a project that appears to be dead in terms of real adoption, the victory against the SEC might be only the beginning of his problems.