SEC Finally Serves Hex Founder Richard Heart with Lawsuit Alleging Fraud

On Friday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Richard Heart, the founder of the blockchain platform Hex, claiming that the project was essentially a fraud. According to the lawsuit, Heart allegedly raised more than $5 million from over 1,000 investors during the “Initial Coin Offering” (ICO) he conducted for his project. The lawsuit also alleges that Heart did not inform the investors of his previous criminal convictions and deliberately misled them by making false statements and exaggerating the project’s potential rewards. Additionally, the SEC believes that Heart misled investors by claiming that the project was using “bank-grade auditing” when in fact it was not. The SEC is seeking injunctive relief and shall seek disgorgement of ill-gotten gains as well as civil penalties. Heart has not responded to the allegations at this time.