By Micheal Chukwuebuka, Reporting
A Colorado-based pastor for an online church accused of pocketing $1.3 million through a cryptocurrency fraud scheme, in a video statement, told followers that the Lord told him to do it.
The Colorado Division of Securities, in a statement on Thursday Jan. 18, 2024, said Eli Regalado and his wife marketed their cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, to Christian communities in Denver, saying God told him people would become wealthy if they invested.
In a compliant filed Tuesday morning, INDXcoin raised nearly $3.2 million in total, while $1.3 million of that went directly to the Regalados or was used for their own personal benefit.
In a video statement to his followers last week, Eli Regalado affirmed that they pocketed $1.3 million, stating what it was used for:
“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.”
According to the complaint, the couple also allegedly spent their investors’ funds on luxury handbags, jewelries, a Range Rover, snowmobile adventures, an au pair and boat rentals.
The couple were charged with violating anti-fraud provisions under the Colorado Security Act.
Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan told newsmen that she filed the civil fraud charges after she was approached by people who invested and lost money through INDXcoin.
“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.
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