Denver Pastor Man of God and Wife Face Charges of 'God-Inspired' Crypto Scheme
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| Eligio Regalado, of the Victorious Grace Church, and his wife were indicted on dozens of charges related to the INDXcoin cryptocurrency and use of the funds from their investors.Credit...INDXcoin |
The pastor, Eligio Regalado, and his wife, Kaitlyn Regalado, spent more than $1 million of investor funds on home renovations, plane tickets and au pair services, prosecutors said.
The New York Times
A pastor in Denver who said that God told him to sell cryptocurrency to his followers was indicted this week on dozens of theft- and fraud-related charges, along with his wife, for selling a digital coin that prosecutors said had no real value.
The pastor, Eligio Regalado, and his wife, Kaitlyn Regalado, were indicted on Tuesday on 40 counts of theft, securities fraud and racketeering by a grand jury in Denver District Court. The couple created and sold a “God-inspired” cryptocurrency called INDXcoin and raised nearly $3.4 million by marketing it to their Christian followers, the Denver District Attorney’s Office said.
But that money was used to support the couple’s lavish lifestyle, not their cryptocurrency business, prosecutors said.
Between January 2022 and July 2023, the couple took money from about 300 investors, who had been promised that their funds would be used to help pay for business operations and to sustain the liquidity of INDXcoin, as well as Kingdom Wealth Exchange, the cryptocurrency exchange where the coin was sold and traded, according to the indictment.
Of the $3.4 million that the couple raised through INDXcoin, prosecutors said, Mr. Regalado and his wife used at least $1.3 million for their personal benefit.
Rather than investing that money into their business, prosecutors said, Mr. Regalado and Ms. Regalado used it to pay for expenses that included home renovations, plane tickets, motel rooms and au pair services.
Mr. Regalado and Ms. Regalado did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday. It was unclear whether they had a lawyer.
The couple, who had no experience in cryptocurrency exchanges, wired money from investors directly to their personal bank and Venmo accounts, prosecutors said.
An audit of INDXcoin, paid for by Mr. Regalado and his wife, found that the coin was “not secure or safe,” the indictment said. The couple promised investors “exorbitant returns” on their investments while promoting a cryptocurrency that had zero value, the Denver District Attorney’s office said.
Mr. Regalado, a pastor at the online Victorious Grace Church, said in a video addressing civil charges against him by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office in 2024 that he went into the cryptocurrency business because “the Lord” told him to. He said that God had once come to him in a dream and asked him to do so, and that God accepted that he and his wife spent the funds in “a home remodel that the Lord told us to do.”
In March, Mr. Regalado said in a video posted on Facebook that he felt like a fraud, but that the feeling stemmed from a “misunderstanding” of how to receive God’s grace.
“My life looks like a dumpster fire,” he said. “Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.”
The indictment said that the couple targeted Christians from their church and others as buyers for their cryptocurrency. Mr. Regalado had said in a 2022 video posted online that God told him to start his cryptocurrency business as a “wealth transfer” for his people, prosecutors said.
On the company’s website, Mr. Regalado and his wife said their cryptocurrency platform “blends biblical kingdom principles of wealth creation with cutting-edge blockchain technology.”
In January 2024, a judge in Denver District Court barred the couple from selling securities before their trial and froze their assets. Prosecutors said they are seeking damages to help restore losses to investors.
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