SEC sues Richard Heart and his crypto projects alleging fraud

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged entrepreneur Richard Heart and three of his cryptocurrency projects -- Hex ( HEX-USD ), PulseChain and PulseX -- for allegedly raising more than $1B in three unregistered securities offerings and misappropriating at least $12M of investor funds. The complaint filed in District Court for the Eastern District of New York accused Heart, also known as Richard Schueler, of defrauding his investors by using their funds to by luxury goods for himself, including sports cars and a 555-carat black diamond. "Heart continually touted these investments as a pathway to grandiose wealth for investors, claiming that Hex, for example, 'was built to be the highest appreciating asset that has ever existed in the history of man," the lawsuit said. Hex ( HEX-USD ), an altcoin with a market cap of $1.1B, fell 27% to $0.0066 at the time of writing. PulseChain and PulseX, also tokens worth less than once cent, retreated 40% and 47% , respectively, according to CoinMarketCap data . The SEC's suit is seeking injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and prejudgment interest, penalties, and other equitable relief. More on the SEC and crypto: SEC asked Coinbase to delist all cryptos except bitcoin before lawsuit - report SEC has no authority to police crypto, Coinbase reportedly says SEC nixes $30M fine from BlockFi until bankrupt crypto lender repays investors