A Colorado-based pastor for an online church accused of pocketing $1.3 million through a cryptocurrency fraud scheme told followers in a video statement that the Lord told him to do it.
Eli Regalado and his wife marketed their cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, to Christian communities in Denver, saying God told him people would become wealthy if they invested, the Colorado Division of Securities said in a statement Thursday.
INDXcoin raised nearly $3.2 million, the Securities Division said. At least $1.3 million of that went directly to the Regalados or was "used for their own personal benefit," said a complaint filed Tuesday in Denver County District Court.
The Regalados could not be reached for comment. In a video statement to his followers last week, Eli Regalado said the charges that they pocketed $1.3 million "are true."
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“Out of the $1.3 [million], half a million dollars went to the IRS, and a few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do," he said in the video. The couple also allegedly spent their investors’ funds on a Range Rover, luxury handbags, jewelry, an au pair, boat rentals and snowmobile adventures, according to the complaint.
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