A pastor based in Colorado is being accused of pocketing $1.3 million in a cryptocurrency fraud scheme. The pastor also shared a video with his followers and explained that the Lord told him to do it.
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Eli Regalado and his wife promoted their cryptocurrency which was named INDXcoin to the Christian community in Denver. While addressing the allegations he said that the Lord spoke to him and told him that people would become wealthy if they were to invest. “Out of the $1.3 [million], half a million dollars went to the IRS, and a few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do,” he said in the video. Now according to the criminal complaint the couple is also being accused of spending their investors money to support their lavish lifestyle. They reportedly spent the money on a Range Rover, luxury handbags, jewelry, boat rentals and snowmobile adventures, according to the complaint.
“According to the complaint filed by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, investigators from the Colorado Division of Securities found that from June 2022 to April 2023, INDXcoin raised nearly $3.2 million from more than 300 individuals,” authorities said. “The complaint alleges that Regalado targeted Christian communities in Denver and claimed that God told him directly that investors would become wealthy if they put money into INDXcoin.”
The couple were charged with violating anti-fraud provisions under the Colorado Securities Act. Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan said she filed the civil fraud charges after she was approached by people who invested and lost money through INDXcoin.
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“We allege that Mr. Regalado took advantage of the trust and faith of his own Christian community and that he peddled outlandish promises of wealth to them when he sold them essentially worthless cryptocurrencies,” Chan said in a statement.
“We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit,” Regalado in his video address Friday. “What we’re believing for still is that God is going to do a miracle. God is going to work a miracle in the financial sector.”
