A Colorado pastor who raised $3.2 million through the sale of a “worthless token” says that God was guiding him to give the followers of his online church 10x returns on investment.
On January 18, the Colorado Securities Commission filed civil fraud charges against Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, for breaching securities laws by running an unlicensed digital asset operation.
It all started in August 2022 when Regalado claimed to have received a divine message from God to launch the INDX coin for “wealth transfer.” He pushed the coin, which the Colorado watchdog labels ‘worthless,’ to followers of his online-only Victorious Grace Church. To complete the ecosystem, he launched Kingdom Wealth Exchange, an online marketplace that was the only platform holders could trade the coin.
On November 1, it all came crashing down when the exchange shut down. But Regalado had a message for the people ‘from God’: “Stay where you’re at. Stay in INDX coins. I’m going to make a way.”
While he guaranteed his followers that a miracle was due, financial statements show that he was chipping away at the $3.2 million stash he had raised. He spent at least $1.3 million on luxury items, including a Range Rover, jewelry, home renovations, boat rentals, and other top-of-the-range items.
The Colorado watchdog has charged the pastor and his wife with securities fraud.
“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,” commented Commissioner Tung Chan, urging Colorado investors to be “very skeptical” of new coins or exchanges.
While most alleged offenders deny their involvement, Regalado made a video admitting to the accusations. However, he says he only spent the money on things “that the Lord told us to do.”
An online pastor was charged in CO for a $1.3 million crypto scam. He's released a 9-minute-long video explaining that the Lord told him to sell a cryptocurrency with no clear exit", and spend some of the proceeds on "a home remodel the Lord told us to do".
Here's a supercut. pic.twitter.com/scKpF8nyrT
— Molly White (@molly0xFFF) January 21, 2024
“We’re still believing that God is going to do a miracle. God is going to work a miracle in the financial sector,” the pastor told his followers.
US authorities crack down on ‘crypto’ scammers
Elsewhere, the former CEO of a digital asset pyramid scheme has been sentenced to five years behind bars. Marco Ruiz Ochoa, who headed IcomTech in 2018 and 2019, for his role in the scheme, which promised investors guaranteed daily returns from its trading and block reward mining activities.
CEO of cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme “IcomTech” sentenced to five-year prison termhttps://t.co/i8zPASDUKk
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) January 19, 2024
Like most ‘crypto’ scams, IcomTech investors saw their earnings skyrocketing on its portal, but only a few could withdraw. Meanwhile, Ochoa and other officials withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars and spent on real estate and luxury goods.
The 35-year-old New Hampshire native, who pleaded guilty to fraud last October, was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit over $900,000 in ill-gotten gains.
“This significant sentence sends a message to anyone considering following in his footsteps: that path leads to serious prison time,” commented U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams.
In yet another scam, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged the operators behind Debiex, a digital asset trading platform, with fraud. The CFTC alleges that the unidentified operators targeted Asian Americans with romance scams before luring them to invest in digital asset trading.
In its filing at the District Court for Arizona, the agency claimed that Debiex defrauded $2.3 million from five customers. While the operators are unknown, the watchdog has accused Zhāng Chéng Yáng of being used as a money mule by the scammers to launder and misappropriate the victims’ money.
Watch: How global micropayment system can reduce fraud
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