The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been actively pursuing a lawsuit against Richard Schueler, also known as Richard Heart, the founder of Hex (HEX). According to a court filing on December 11 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the SEC managed to serve Heart with the lawsuit through a substitute service on October 31. This method was employed due to difficulties in personally delivering the suit to Heart, who is based in Helsinki, Finland.
The process of serving Heart proved challenging, with the process server making numerous unsuccessful attempts over nearly seven weeks starting from September 13. These attempts included calls, texts, letters, and efforts to reach him in person at his residence in Helsinki.
The lawsuit, filed by the SEC in July, accuses Heart of making over $1 billion from selling Hex, PulseChain (PLS), and PulseX (PSLX), which the SEC alleges are unregistered securities. Furthermore, the SEC claims that Heart defrauded investors in the U.S. and overseas, misappropriating at least $12 million of their funds for personal luxuries such as a 555-carat diamond, expensive watches, and high-end automobiles.
Despite the SEC’s efforts to locate and serve Heart since August 22, they faced difficulties in finding him, although it was known that he was somewhere in Helsinki. Heart has maintained a low profile regarding his whereabouts, but this has not hindered his online activity. Since the SEC’s November 21 status report, he has been actively posting on X (formerly Twitter), commenting on various crypto-related events, including Binance’s settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, and updates on Do Kwon.
The performance of HEX has been significantly affected over the past year, with a notable decline in its value. According to CoinGecko data, HEX has seen a decrease of 81.5% over the past year and a staggering 99% drop since its all-time high of $0.5 on September 19, 2021. This downturn reflects the broader challenges and volatility faced by the cryptocurrency market.
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