After Ripple, Binance, and Coinbase, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has now turned its focus to Richard Heart’s projects, Hex and PulseChain. The SEC has taken legal action by filing a lawsuit against Richard Heart and his ventures, citing allegations of selling unregistered securities and engaging in fraudulent activities.
Read on for more details.
SEC Files Lawsuit Over Unregistered Securities Offerings and Investor Fraud
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Richard Schueler, an internet marketer known as Richard Heart, and his projects Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX. The SEC alleges that he conducted three unregistered securities offerings, raising over $1 billion since 2019. Furthermore, the lawsuit accuses Heart of defrauding investors by misusing their funds for personal expenses.
According to the lawsuit, Richard Heart promoted these investments as a means for investors to achieve significant wealth, going as far as claiming that Hex would become the most appreciating asset in human history. However, the SEC alleges that despite mentioning the investments were for supporting free speech, Heart failed to disclose that he used millions of dollars from PulseChain investors to purchase luxury goods for his personal benefit.
The recent launches of PulseX and PulseChain, have faced significant challenges, including high fees, liquidity problems, and exploitable bugs. As a consequence, the prices of HEX, PLS, and PLSX tokens dropped after their release.
The SEC pointed out that Heart frequently referenced federal securities laws in his YouTube livestreams and public statements. However, the lawsuit highlights that Heart himself admitted that the success of these projects relied solely on his own efforts.
It is worth mentioning that Heart has claimed that his projects were designed to surpass Ethereum’s price performance and other cryptocurrencies. He touted its rapid price increase, stating that HEX’s USD price had surged 115 times in just 129 days.
