A pastor facing allegations of orchestrating a $3.2 million scheme to defraud parishioners now claims that he may have misunderstood divine instructions, as reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday.
Eligio Regalado, also known as Eli, and his wife, Kaitlyn Regalado, are currently facing charges from the Colorado Securities Commissioner.
According to the legal filing, the Regalados created their own Christian cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, which they sold through the online platform they established, Kingdom Wealth Exchange. The filing, submitted to the Denver District Court, seeks relief, damages for investors, and the placement of a constructive trust on the defendants’ property, as outlined in Commissioner Tung Chan’s release.
Between June 2022 and April 2023, INDXcoin garnered nearly $3.2 million from investments by over 300 individuals within the “Christian community,” according to the legal filing. Regalado, based in Denver, claimed that God had directly instructed him that investors would become wealthy by putting all their money into INDXcoin.
Regalado reportedly told individuals, “The Lord said: I want you to build this. We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit.”
However, he now presents a different narrative.
“Either I misheard God, and every one of you who prayed and came in — you as well. Or two, God is still not done with this project,” Regalado stated, suggesting that the project might still deliver.
Despite lacking experience in cryptocurrency, the couple proceeded with their venture. A third-party audit labeled the effort as “unsafe, unsecured, and riddled with serious technical problems,” while the legal filing deemed it practically worthless.
Commissioner Chan emphasized, “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. New coins and new exchanges are easy to create with open source code. We want to remind consumers to be very skeptical.”
