Richard Heart is a YouTuber and cryptocurrency influencer who’s accused of misappropriating at the least $12 million in investor funds.

Who is Richard Heart?

SEC mentioned in a lawsuit that Heart raised funds by means of his crypto ventures Hex, PulseChain and PulseX. He reportedly used the funds buy “exorbitant luxurious items,” including a 555-karat black diamond worth roughly $4.3 million. He also purchased a $1.38 million Rolex watch, a $534,916 McLaren sports car and a $314,125 Ferrari Roma, the lawsuit stated.

The 43-year-old launched Hex, an Etherium-based token, in 2019. He promoted it on his Youtube channel as, “the very best appreciating asset that has ever existed within the historical past of man.”

Between December 2019 and November 2020, Heart accepted more than 2.3 million ether tokens worth $678 million at the time.

In July 2021, he began raising funds for the two platforms he owned- PulseChain and PulseX. He managed to raise more than $1 billion, according to the SEC.

“Although Heart claimed these investments have been for the obscure objective of supporting free speech, he didn’t disclose that he used hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of PulseChain investor funds to purchase luxurious items for himself,” the SEC’s legal professionals mentioned.