- A US pastor who sold a worthless cryptocurrency to his flock and pocketed $1.3 million, using some of it to remodel his house, has insisted he was only doing what God told him.
Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, face a civil lawsuit alleging they flogged the so-called INDXcoin to fellow Christians in Colorado, with divine guarantees investors would become rich.
According to the complaint filed by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, investigators found 300 people sank $3.2 million into something Regalado and his wife insisted God was backing
That was despite the fact that the couple, who run an online church, had no experience in cryptocurrency, said a press release from the Colorado Division of Securities, the state body that regulates the securities market.
Faced with the fraud allegations, Regalado doubled down on his message of a God-given mission and even confessed to using the cash for some home improvements — which he said was also an instruction from above.
“So the charges are that Kaitlyn and I have pocketed $1.3 million, and I just want to come out and say that those charges are true,” he said in a video posted to a forum for INDXcoin investors.
“Out of that 1.3, half a million dollars went to the IRS and a few $100,000 went to a home remodel that the Lord told us to do.”
The couple allegedly also spent funds on a gamut of luxury items, including a Range Rover, jewellery, swanky handbags and snowmobile trips, the complaint states. https://www.instagram.com/p/C2eeYfttmar/?igsh=MWMzYXZwYmE2Zm1ydQ==
