Colorado Pastor and INDXcoin Founder, Eli Regalado, is facing fraud charges after allegedly selling a deceptive cryptocurrency, claiming “the Lord told us to.”
The Colorado Securities Commission charged Regalado and his partner, Kaitlin Regalado, for marketing the fraudulent token INDXcoin, which reportedly raised nearly $3.2 million from over 300 investors between June 2022 and April 2023.
According to Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan, Regalado exploited the trust of his Christian community, convincing them that God assured wealth through INDXcoin investments.
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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.
“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 majority of funds were collected from the online church, Victorious Grace Church, where Regalado serves as a pastor. These transactions were facilitated through Regalado’s Kingdom Wealth Exchange platform, which he shut down on November 1, citing the lack of “enough finances to keep the internal servers running.”
“The charges are that Kaitlin and I pocketed $1.3 million dollars, and I just want to come out and say those charges are true,” Regalado admitted in a nine-minute video that was posted on INDXcoin, but said that half of that money went to the Internal Revenue Service as taxes, with a substantial portion allocated to “a home remodel that the Lord told us to do.”
However, the Colorado regulator contends that the pair spent a significant part of a $1.3 million sum on cosmetic dentistry, luxury handbags, snowmobiles, home renovations, and lavish vacations.
While cryptocurrency founders typically blame the economic headwinds, bad decisions, or just don’t say anything, Regalado blamed, well, God.
“We were always just under the impression that God was going to provide, that the source was never-ending, that god was doing a new thing, and that we had nothing to worry about,” Regalado said, attempting to explain why they sold crypto “with no clear exit.”
“We took God at his word,” he declared, adding that he doesn’t know “how God is gonna turn this around” but he says he believes that God will work a miracle in the financial sector.
Information for this story was found via the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
