An online Colorado pastor and his wife are accused of pocketing $1.3 million in a crypto scheme in Denver….his excuse… God told him to do it.
“They specifically went out to the Christian community, and there’s a lot of references to scripture and faith. He cloaks himself in that to get people to give their money to him,” said Tung Chan, the Colorado securities commissioner. “That’s really heartbreaking for the people who trusted him.”
In a video (that’s now taken down) on the INDXcoin website, Eli Regalado opened the video by saying:
“I just wanted to come out and say those charges are true. We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit. What we’re still believing is that God is going to do a miracle. God is going to work a miracle in the financial sector.”
INDXcoin raised almost $3.2 million, the Securities Division said. At least $1.3 million of that went directly to the Regalados.
“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.
“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,” said Chan.
If you or someone you know has invested with INDXCoin or any of Eli Regalado’s other entities, please contact the Colorado Division of Securities at dora_SecuritiesWebsite@state.co.us or 303-894-2320.
