US pastor who pocketed investors’ $1.3m says God told him to do it: A civil complaint has been filed against Eli Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn on the grounds that they sold Colorado-based fellow Christians “INDXcoin,” promising investors financial success based on supernatural prophecies.
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As to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office complaint, 300 individuals invested $3.2 million in something that Regalado and his spouse thought had divine support.
According to a news statement from the Colorado Division of Securities, the state agency in charge of overseeing the securities market, this was the case even though the couple, who manage an online church, had no prior expertise with cryptocurrencies.
Regalado reaffirmed his message of a God-given mission in the face of the fraud accusations, even admitting that he had used the money for some home renovations, which he said was also a directive from above. US Pastor
“So the charges are that Kaitlyn and I have pocketed $1.3 million, and I just want to come out and say that those charges are true,” he said in a video posted to a forum for INDXcoin investors.
“Out of that 1.3, half a million dollars went to the IRS and a few $100,000 went to a home remodel that the Lord told us to do.”
According to the complaint, the couple reportedly allegedly spent money on a variety of opulent things, such as trips on snowmobiles, jewellery, designer handbags, and Range Rovers.
Regalado acknowledged that there might have been some misunderstandings on his hotline to God in response to the legal action, which was filed in Denver last week, but he continued to have faith that the Big Man will ultimately prevail.
We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit,” he said.
“Either I misheard God… or God is still not done with this project,” he said.
“What we’re praying for… is that God is going to work a miracle in the financial sector. He is going to bring a miracle into INDXcoin.”
Tung Chan, the commissioner of securities for Colorado, advised prospective investors not to trust get-rich-quick schemes at face value.
“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.
“New coins and new exchanges are easy to create with open source code. We want to remind consumers to be very skeptical.”
The US pastor and wife are scheduled to appear in court in Denver the following week, according to NBC News.
