A pastor who sold worthless cryptocurrency to his congregation and made $1.3 million (£1 million) has insisted he was only doing what God told him to do.
Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn are currently facing a civil lawsuit alleging they sold the INDXcoin to fellow Christians in Colorado – providing ‘divine guarantees’ that investors would make major profits.
The complaint, filed by the Colorado Attorney General’s office, says 300 people spent $3.2 million (1.5 million) into the cryptocurrency, which Regalado and his wife insisted God was backing.
But the couple, who run an online church, allegedly have no experience in cryptocurrency – and they’re also accused of pocketing $1.3 million of that money.
After the allegations were made public, Regalado doubled down in a video posted to a forum for INDXcoin investors – insisting that God told them to do it.
He also says God told them to remodel their house and allegedly buy a number of luxury items, from a Range Rover to snowmobile trips.
In the video, he said: ‘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.
‘Out of that, 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.’
Facing the legal action, Regalado has since conceded that he may have had some communications with the big man.
He added: ‘We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit. Either I misheard God… or God is still not done with this project.
‘What we’re praying for… is that God is going to work a miracle in the financial sector. He is going to bring a miracle into INDXcoin.’
Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan said: ‘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.
‘New coins and new exchanges are easy to create with open source code. We want to remind consumers to be very skeptical.’
NBC News reports that the couple are due to appear in court in Denver next week.
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