A Colorado pastor and his wife admitted online to scamming Christians out of $3.2 million worth of cryptocurrency, spending over a million on themselves.
Eligio "Eli" Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn released a YouTube video, in which they confessed to selling worthless cryptocurrency to 300 Christians recruited to invest in INDXcoin.
"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 that has now been made private.
Regalado spent that money on a Range Rover, jewelry, luxury handbags, cosmetic dentistry, boat rentals, snowmobile adventures, home renovations and an au pair. This is according to Tung Chan, the Colorado Colorado Securities Commissioner who charged the couple with fraud.
"There's been $1.3 million that's been taken out of, I think it was, a total of $3.4 million," says Regalado. "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, Col. and used his position to connect with people and bring them into this scam.
"Money would come in, we'd tithe, we'd sow, more money would come in, and so 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 sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit. And so the prosecutors have to take that and say, 'These people willingly sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit.' What we're praying for and what we're believing for still is that God is going to do a miracle."