Richard Heart is still a fugitive, despite dismissal of SEC case
On Friday, the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against Richard Heart and his projects HEX, Pulsechain, and PulseX, because the regulator failed to establish legal jurisdiction over the globe-trotting millionaire.
With that high-profile lawsuit out of the way, many fans are concerned about his next battle: Europol.
The transnational police collective Europol still lists Richard Schueler (his real last name) on its website of Europe’s Most Wanted Fugitives.
European law enforcement alleges two reasons for his listing. First, they allege that Heart committed personal and business tax fraud. Second, it alleges that he physically assaulted a minor.
Interpol lists those same reasons as part of his criminal Red Notice.
Richard Heart tax fraud investigation
Helsinki police initiated an investigation into Heart in 2024 amid discrepancies between Schueler’s self-reported income and estimates from Finland’s tax administration. Authorities suspect Heart underreported earnings since 2020 from sales of tokens he might have earned from crypto ventures such as Hex (HEX), PulseChain (PLS), PulseX (PSLX), or the various assets that backed the value of those tokens such as ether (ETH), tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), or others.
Of course, these arrest notices are merely allegations and don’t imply that a court has found Heart guilty of a crime. In Finland’s criminal justice system, courts presume a defendant innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Indeed, Finland has ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, binding it to Article 6(2) and its presumption of innocence, which states that “everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.”
Moreover, Section 3 of the Finnish Criminal Code requires prosecutors to establish guilt “beyond reasonable doubt” to obtain a conviction.
Read more: Have Finnish police seized Richard Heart’s Rolex watches?
SEC loss could cast doubt
Needless to say, the dismissal of the SEC’s lawsuit will not aid Finnish prosecutors if they are able to establish jurisdiction over Heart. Defense attorneys only need to convince a jury of reasonable doubt over criminal complaints to maintain Heart’s freedom at trial.
Although the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York didn’t rule on the merits of the commissioners’ lawsuit beyond denying the SEC’s personal jurisdiction over Heart, the dismissal of the well-publicized suit could cast doubt over a possible jury that might assemble in a future Finnish courtroom.
According to the dismissal order favoring Heart, the SEC’s use of “globally available internet content” that was “not expressly directed at the United States” was legally insufficient to establish jurisdiction over Heart.
Finnish authorities, in contrast, allege that Heart resided in Finland and failed to file and pay proper taxes as a resident.
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