A US pastor who sold a worthless cryptocurrency to his flock and pocketed US$1.3 million, using some of it to remodel his house, said he was only doing what God told him.
Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn Regalado, face a civil lawsuit alleging they sold the so-called INDXcoin to fellow Christians in Colorado, with divine guarantees investors would become rich.
Investigators found 300 people sank US$3.2 million into something Eli Regalado and his wife insisted God was backing, said the complaint filed by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
Photo: Reuters
That was despite the couple, who run an online church, having no experience in cryptocurrency, a news release from the Colorado Division of Securities said.
Faced with the fraud allegations, Eli Regalado doubled down on his message of a God-given mission, and even confessed to using the cash for some home improvements — which he said was also an instruction from above.
“So the charges are that Kaitlyn and I have pocketed US$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 [US Internal Revenue Service] and a few US$100,000 went to a home remodel that the Lord told us to do.”
The couple allegedly also spent funds on a gamut of luxury items, including a Range Rover, jewelry, swanky handbags and snowmobile trips, the complaint states.
Facing the legal action, which was filed in Denver last week, Eli Regalado conceded it was possible there had been some communication issues on his hotline to God, although he was still holding out hope that the Big Man would come through in the end.
“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 added. “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.”
Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan said that potential investors in get-rich quick schemes would be wise not to take them 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.”
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