Turkish police detain Hex founder Richard Heart in Istanbul on a Finland-requested Red Notice

Turkish police and the National Intelligence Organization detained Hex, PulseChain and PulseX founder Richard Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, in Istanbul's Beşiktaş district on the morning of Oct. 14, 2026, together with his wife, identified as A.K. IHA, carried by Daily Sabah, linked the operation to an Interpol Red Notice that Interpol issued in 2024 at Finland's request, and Turkish press described the seizure as police custody rather than a court-ordered arrest. Finnish authorities remanded Heart in absentia in September 2024 on suspicion of tax evasion between 2020 and 2024 and of assaulting a 16-year-old in February 2021, according to the Europol listing cited by Unchained. Early Turkish reporting said officers took $4 million in cash, 64 luxury watches, firearms and electronics from the property, while a statement from Justice Minister Akın Gürlek on Oct. 17, the first official acknowledgement of the detention, put the haul at $7.15 million and added six cold wallets and hundreds of designer items. Gürlek described Schueler as a U.S. citizen held on a Red Notice over allegations of perpetrating a $1 billion cryptocurrency fraud in the United States and Finland, a wider charge than the tax and assault allegations from Finland. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's 2023 case against Heart and the three projects, which alleged more than $1 billion raised through unregistered securities and at least $12 million of misappropriated investor funds, was dropped in 2025 after a federal judge found no jurisdiction and the SEC declined to appeal. As of early Oct. 15 Unchained found no statement from Turkish police, prosecutors or ministries, and neither Heart nor PulseChain had commented.