A Denver grand jury has indicted a Colorado pastor and his wife on 40 felony charges for allegedly orchestrating a multi-million-dollar crypto scam that targeted their Christian community, with the couple accused of pocketing $1.3 million for personal luxuries while claiming divine guidance.
Eli and Kaitlyn Regalado face charges of theft, securities fraud, and racketeering after soliciting nearly $3.4 million from over 300 investors between January 2022 and July 2023 for INDXcoin, according to a Tuesday statement by the Denver District Attorney's Office.
INDXcoin is a cryptocurrency they created and marketed through their online-only Victorious Grace Church, the statement said.
Investigators say the Regalados used their faith-based connections to promise exorbitant returns while claiming God had directed the venture as a "wealth transfer" for his people.
INDXcoin maintained zero value throughout its existence, meaning all investors lost their entire investments.
The crypto could only be exchanged through Kingdom Wealth Exchange, a platform the Regalados controlled and allegedly shut down periodically to prevent investors from withdrawing funds.
When investors grew wary of INDXcoin's lack of returns, Eli Regalado reportedly told them “the Lord” was directing everyone to hold their positions.
“If you look closely at all sorts of crypto and online scams, scammers often trick human minds by triggering fear, greed, and FOMO rather than hacking systems,” Karan Pujara, founder of the scam defense platform ScamBuzzer, previously told Decrypt.
“The global nature of crypto makes it difficult to work with country-specific regulations to recover funds, as well as for filing legal complaints,” he added.
“Guaranteed by God”
The couple allegedly spent the majority of the $1.3 million on cosmetic dentistry, luxury handbags, snowmobiles, and luxury vacations,” according to the Colorado Securities Commission’s statement in January 2024.
Of the more than $3 million raised from investors, Regalado claimed that half went to the Internal Revenue Service on taxes, while stating that "a few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel that the Lord told us to do."
In a since-deleted video posted in January 2024, Eli Regalado admitted the allegations were accurate.
However, he maintained that "God is not done with this project" and asked his followers to stand by the couple.
According to legal filings made by the state, the pastor had told investors their success was "guaranteed by God" and dismissed legal expert advice that INDXcoin constituted a security requiring proper registration.
"These charges mark a major step forward in our work to hold the Regalados accountable for their alleged crimes and to bring a measure of justice to the victims," said Denver District Attorney John Walsh.
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