At a glance

  • Turkey’s Minister of Justice, Akın Gürlek, confirmed on Saturday that Richard James Schueler, known as Richard Heart, the founder of HEX and PulseChain, was detained in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district on 14 October, together with his wife.
  • Searches at 15 addresses turned up $7.15 million and 160,000 Turkish lira in cash, six cold wallets, luxury goods and weapons, the minister said. Legal proceedings and examination of the seized items are continuing.

Richard Heart was detained in Istanbul on 14 October, Turkey’s justice minister said in a statement on his official X account at 06:15 UTC (08:15 CEST) on Saturday, the first official confirmation after three days of Turkish media reports.

The statement describes Schueler as a US citizen about whom Interpol has reportedly issued a red notice, over allegations that he carried out a $1 billion crypto-asset fraud in the US and Finland. The statement is in Turkish; translations here are CryptoWatchDesk’s.

The operation

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office coordinated the investigation, the minister said. The Istanbul police’s intelligence and financial crimes branches carried out the operation, with support from Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MİT).

Three people identified as Schueler’s bodyguards were detained later, according to the statement.

Police searched 15 addresses in the Beşiktaş, Üsküdar and Sarıyer districts. The minister listed what was seized:

  • $7.15 million and 160,000 Turkish lira (about $3,230) in cash;
  • six cold wallets;
  • 300 bags, 100 pairs of shoes, 136 pairs of glasses and 28 watches;
  • 97 pieces of jewellery and other valuables;
  • 29 mobile phones, 12 laptops, 11 computer cases, 19 SSDs or external drives, 46 USB sticks and 19 graphics cards;
  • four long-barrelled rifles, three unlicensed pistols and 1,400 rounds of ammunition.

The statement does not say what the cold wallets hold. A cold wallet keeps a private key offline.

“We will not allow anyone to see Türkiye as a safe haven where they can escape justice,” Gürlek wrote.

The cases behind the notice

The minister did not say which US authority is behind the allegations, and no Turkish court decision or extradition request has been made public.

Interpol published a red notice at Finland’s request in December 2024, and Europol added Schueler to its “Europe’s Most Wanted” list the same month, Crypto Valley Journal reported. The suspicions listed then were tax offences and assault, not investor fraud, according to that report.

In the US, a federal judge in Brooklyn dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Schueler in February 2025, citing a lack of ties between the alleged conduct and the United States, Reuters reported. The SEC had accused him of raising more than $1 billion through unregistered offerings. For another recent ruling involving a US regulator, see the judge’s ruling on the Gemini settlement.

Schueler has not commented publicly. His X account last posted on 13 October, the day before the operation.

PulseChain’s PLS token was trading at $0.00000574 as of 09:49 UTC, down 18.6% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

Turkish prosecutors’ work on the suspects and the seized material is continuing, the minister said.

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This article is for information only and is not investment advice.