-
Pastor
Eli
Regalado
said
he
was
under
God’s
orders
to
set
up
his
failed
crypto
project
and
he’s
now
counting
on
a
miracle. -
He
said
it’s
true
that
he
and
his
wife
took
$1.3
million
from
the
investors,
and
that
God
told
them
to
spend
hundreds
of
thousands
to
remodel
their
home. -
He’ll
have
a
chance
to
start
explaining
that
beginning
with
a
court
hearing
scheduled
for
January
29.
To
err
is
human.
But
Colorado
securities
officials
said
that
what
Pastor
Eli
Regalado
has
been
doing
is
more
like
fraud.
Regalado
and
wife
Kaitlyn
launched
a
crypto
token
last
year
called
INDXcoin.
Colorado
Securities
Commissioner
Tung
Chan
filed
charges
last
week
against
the
couple
and
the
entities
they
ran,
accusing
them
of
pocketing
$1.3
million
in
crypto
proceeds
while
more
than
300
investors
had
no
way
to
recover
any
of
their
money.
The
pastor
–
who
had
worked
in
digital
marketing
–
responded
in
a
video
message
posted
on
the
project’s
website,
sharing
a
sentiment
that’s
unusual
from
a
crypto
founder
cornered
by
government
authorities:
“Those
charges
are
true.”
“We
sold
a
cryptocurrency
with
no
clear
exit,”
he
said,
explaining
that
God
told
him
to
build
it
and
give
investors
ten
times
the
money
they
put
in.
“We
did.
We
took
God
at
his
word.”
“The
Lord
told
us
to
walk
away
from
our
parking
company.
…
He
took
us
into
this
cryptocurrency
…
well,
that
cryptocurrency
turned
out
to
be
a
scam….
And
I
said
Lord
…
you
told
me
to
do
this,”
he
said
in
the
video.
The
couple
also
took
about
$1.3
million
from
more
than
$3
million
raised
for
the
project.
Regalado
said
about
$500,000
went
to
the
Internal
Revenue
Services,
and
a
“few
hundred
thousand”
was
devoted
to
a
home
remodeling
project
that
“the
Lord
told
us
to
do.”
The
pastor,
described
in
the
token’s
white
paper
as
an
“ordained
Marketplace
Minister
of
the
Gospel
of
Jesus
Christ,”
said
he
insisted
to
God
before
the
project
began,
“I
don’t
have
any
experience
in
this
industry.
I
don’t
know
what
I’m
doing.”
He
and
his
wife
launched
the
Kingdom
Wealth
Exchange,
and
investors
began
pouring
money
in.
“The
exchange
technology
failed;
things
went
downhill,”
he
said.
“We’ve
just
been
waiting
on
the
Lord,
literally,
for
a
miracle.”
At
this
point,
according
to
Colorado
officials
pursuing
the
charges
in
Denver
District
Court,
the
crypto
is
“Illiquid
and
practically
worthless.”
“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,”
Chan
said
in
a
statement.
A
hearing
is
scheduled
in
the
case
on
January
29,
according
to
a
search
of
the
Colorado
state
court
docket.
Most
of
the
comments
posted
on
the
INDXcoin
site
are
supportive
of
the
pastor,
quoting
biblical
passages
and
praising
the
way
he’s
handling
the
accusations.
“We
were
just
always
under
the
impression
that
God
was
going
to
provide,
that
the
source
was
never
ending,”
Regalado
said,
granting
that
he
knows
this
situation
“looks
terrible”
and
that
he
doesn’t
know
what’s
coming
next.
“I
don’t
know
how
God
is
going
to
turn
this
around.”
But
he
asserted,
“God
is
not
done
with
INDXcoin.”
