Pastor Couple Charged with Fraud After Selling Millions in Cryptocurrency – The Roys Report

A Colorado pastor and his wife admitted online they scammed Christians out of $3.2 million worth of cryptocurrency, spending over a million on themselves.

Eligio Eli Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn releaseda YouTube video, in which they confessed to selling worthless cryptocurrency to 300 Christians recruited to invest in INDXcoin through an offering they called Kingdom of Wealth.

So the charges are that Kaitlyn and I pocketed $1.3 million. . . I just want to come out and say that those charges are true, says Regalado in the video, whichhas now been made private.

Last Tuesday, Colorado Securities and Exchange Commissioner Tung Chanfiled civil fraud charges against the Regalados in a Denverdistrict court. The complaint accuses the couple of raising nearly $3.2 million from investors by claiming that God would make them rich. Yet, the cryptocurrency the couple sold was illiquid, the complaint claims.

Regalado spent the money he got in the scheme on aRange Rover, jewelry, luxury handbags, cosmetic dentistry, boat rentals, snowmobile adventures, home renovations and an au pair, according to Commissioner Chan.

Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of The Great Dechurching: Whos Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? by Jim Davis and Michael Graham. To donate, click here.

Theres been $1.3 million thats been taken out of, I think it was, a total of $3.4 million, says Regalado in the video.But out of that $1.3, half a million dollars went to the IRS, and a few hundred thousand went to a home remodel that the Lord told us to do.

Regalado preaches at Victorious Grace Church in Denver.According to Chan, Regalado exploited his position to prey on a vulnerable congregation.

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, said Chan. New coins and new exchanges are easy to create with open source code. We want to remind consumers to be very skeptical.

Yet, inhis video, Regalado implied that officials dont understand the way God works.

Money would come in. Wed tithe. Wed sow, Regalado said. . . . We were just always under the impression that God was going to provide, that the source was never-ending, that God was doing a new thing and that we had nothing to worry about.We sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit. We did.

We took God at His word . . .And so the prosecutors have to take that and say, These people willingly sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit. What were praying for, and what were believing for still, is that God is going to do a miracle.

Julie Roys contributed to this report, a version of which originally appeared at CHVN Radio.

Sylvia St. Cyr is an on-air radio host at CHVN, a Christian outlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Original post:
Pastor Couple Charged with Fraud After Selling Millions in Cryptocurrency - The Roys Report