SEC Drops Case: Richard Heart Declares Victory for Crypto and Free Speech

His statement came after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it would not continue its case against him.

The SEC officially informed Judge Carol Bagley Amon of its decision in a letter on April 21. The agency said it would not submit a revised complaint.

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This followed a February 28 court decision, in which the judge stated that the SEC had not shown that Heart’s actions directly involved US investors. The court gave the SEC time to amend its complaint, first until March 20, then extended it to April 21.

Heart, whose real name is Richard Schueler, took the court’s dismissal as a complete win. He posted that the SEC had failed on every claim and suggested the outcome was a win not just for him, but for cryptocurrency, open-source software, and free speech.

He also noted that the SEC had tried to take legal action against software code itself in this case.

The legal fight began in July 2023, when the SEC accused Heart of raising over $1 billion through unregistered token sales. The agency claimed that HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX were promoted as ways to quickly make large profits, without following the proper rules for securities offerings.

On April 10, the SEC officially closed its case against Nova Labs, the company behind the decentralized wireless network Helium HNT $3.97 . How did the company respond? Read the full story.