Pastor says 'God told him' to do it after being charged with fraud

A pastor who has been charged after admitting he and his wife squandered $1.3 million raised through a cryptocurrency scheme has said that god ‘told him to do it’.

Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, allegedly told investors in their cryptocurrency, known as “INDXcoin”, that the Lord told them people would become rich if they invested.

A press release from Colorodo’s division of securities was released last week stating that INDXcoin was actually “practically worthless”.

Instead, prosecutors said in the statement that the couple spent the investments on themselves while investors lost millions of dollars.

As BusinessDen reports, INDXcoin.com raised around $3.2 million from 300 investors between June 2022 and April 2023. The Regalados reportedly took more than half of the money to renovate their home and spend on luxury items.

Now, Eil has admitted fraud and claimed that god told him to carry out his actions.

Speaking in a video released on the INDXcoin website, he said: “The charges are that me and Kaitlyn pocketed $1.3 million. I just wanted to come out and say those charges are true.”

He went on to say: “A few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do. We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit.”

Regalado added that the couple still believes that God will “work a miracle in the financial sector”.

The Colorado securities commissioner Tung Chan released a statement saying: “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.”

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