The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Richard Heart and his cryptocurrency projects, including Hex, PulseChain and PulseX.

What Happened: Heart, also known as Richard Schueler, raised more than $1 billion through the sale of unregistered securities, the SEC claims.

Heart allegedly used at least $12 million of the funds raised to purchase luxury items, including high-end cars, watches, and a 555-carat black diamond known as "The Enigma."

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“Heart called on investors to buy crypto asset securities in offerings that he failed to register. He then defrauded those investors by spending some of their crypto assets on exorbitant luxury goods," Eric Werner, the director of the SEC’s Fort Worth office, stated. "This action seeks to protect the investing public and hold Heart accountable.”

Why It Matters: Heart is a prominent figure in the crypto industry and a YouTube streamer. he started marketing Hex in 2018 and touted it as the first high-yield "blockchain certificate of deposit."

The SEC alleges that Heart carried out three separate offerings of "crypto asset securities," one each for Hex, PulseChain—a layer-1 fork of Ethereum—and PulseX, a DeFi protocol.

This lawsuit against Heart and his projects is the latest in a series of legal actions by the SEC against major firms and figures in the crypto industry.

The SEC has previously filed lawsuits against Gemini, Genesis, Bittrex, TRON (CRYPTO: TRX), Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), and Binance (CRYPTO: BNB).

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