Latest news with #KaitlynRegalado
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Pastor and wife charged with $1m fraud after ‘God told him' to sell crypto to his flock and spent it on vacations
A Denver pastor and his wife have been accused of running a cryptocurrency scam and using the proceeds to pay for a home renovation and vacations. Eligio 'Eli' Regalado and Kaitlyn Regalado were indicted on 40 counts of theft, securities fraud and racketeering, the Denver District Attorney's Office said last week. Prosecutors say the Regalados solicited $3.4 million from investors looking to buy their cryptocurrency, INDXCoin, but only a 'small amount of the proceeds went to the business venture.' Instead, the Regalados are accused of spending at least $1.3 million of those proceeds on personal expenses, including a home renovation that they said 'the Lord' told them to do, prosecutors said. The couple is also accused of spending it on airline tickets, motel rooms and high-end retail merchandise, among other personal expenses. The cryptocurrency has 'zero value' and 'all of the investors lost all of their money,' prosecutors said. The couple maintains INDXcoin is not a security — which is a tradable or sellable financial asset — and therefore it did not require licensing or registration, The Denver Gazette reports. Instead, they say it's a 'utility coin' — which is tradable for products or services — to give people access to online faith-based communities. The couple was arrested earlier this month, but both are now out on a $100,000 property bond, according to the Gazette. The judge ordered that they will have 'intensive pretrial supervision' and must turn over their travel documents. The Regalados did not have attorneys and told the court they don't qualify for public defenders, according to the Gazette. Their next court hearing is set for September 11. The Independent has contacted the couple for comment through the INDXcoin website. Eli Regalado said 'the Lord' brought him the idea for INDXcoin in October 2021, according to the indictment. He went on to tell his followers 'God' told him and his wife to start the cryptocurrency, prosecutors said. The couple encouraged investors 'to have faith that their investment in INDXcoin would lead to 'abundance' and 'blessings,'' according to the indictment. Between January 2022 and July 2023, the couple is accused of taking funds from about 300 investors who thought their funds would help pay for INDXcoin and the Kingdom Wealth Exchange, the cryptocurrency exchange where people could sell and trade the coin. Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan brought civil charges against the couple in January 2024. Chan alleged the couple violated the anti-fraud, licensing and registration provisions of the Colorado Securities Act. The Denver District Court granted a preliminary injunction and asset freeze shortly afterward. 'The complaint alleges that Regalado targeted Christian communities in Denver and claimed that God told him directly that investors would become wealthy if they put money into INDXcoin,' the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies said in a statement. Chan's office is seeking a freeze on the couple's assets, a permanent injunction and $3.4 million in restitution, according to The Denver Gazette. The couple said they 'did not intend to defraud investors,' and argued they 'acted based on their religious mission and sincere belief in the project's potential,' according to court documents reviewed by the Gazette. The couple also argued the coin was not a security. Last summer, Eli Regalado posted a video denying the allegations, similarly arguing that INDXcoin was not a security. 'My plan was to let this thing play out in court, not say anything until the case was done, but the Lord told me, he goes, 'Son, you need to speak out, you need to speak out against this evil assignment on your life and be transparent with the community,'' he said. A bench trial was held in May and the couple is awaiting a ruling from the judge, according to the Gazette. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
5 days ago
- New York Times
Denver Pastor and Wife Face Charges in ‘God-Inspired' Cryptocurrency Scheme
A pastor in Denver who said that God told him to sell cryptocurrency to his followers was indicted this week on dozens of theft- and fraud-related charges, along with his wife, for selling a digital coin that prosecutors said had no real value. The pastor, Eligio Regalado, and his wife, Kaitlyn Regalado, were indicted on Tuesday on 40 counts of theft, securities fraud and racketeering by a grand jury in Denver District Court. The couple created and sold a 'God-inspired' cryptocurrency called INDXcoin and raised nearly $3.4 million by marketing it to their Christian followers, the Denver District Attorney's Office said. But that money was used to support the couple's lavish lifestyle, not their cryptocurrency business, prosecutors said. Between January 2022 and July 2023, the couple took money from about 300 investors, who had been promised that their funds would be used to help pay for business operations and to sustain the liquidity of INDXcoin, as well as Kingdom Wealth Exchange, the cryptocurrency exchange where the coin was sold and traded, according to the indictment. Of the $3.4 million that the couple raised through INDXcoin, prosecutors said, Mr. Regalado and his wife used at least $1.3 million for their personal benefit. Rather than investing that money into their business, prosecutors said, Mr. Regalado and Ms. Regalado used it to pay for expenses that included home renovations, plane tickets, motel rooms and au pair services. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Grand Jury Charges Pastor, Wife in Alleged Multi-Million Dollar Cryptocurrency Scam
A Denver grand jury has indicted a married couple on 40 counts of theft, fraud and deceit, for allegedly operating a multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency scam that mostly targeted churches, the Denver District Attorney announced in a press release on Tuesday. Between 2022 and July 2023, Eli Regalado, who is also a pastor who preaches at the Victorious Grace Church, and his wife Kaitlyn, the only other employee at the church which they host at their home, allegedly solicited nearly $3.4 million from investors looking to buy their INDXcoin cryptocurrency from their Kingdom Wealth Exchange. The couple targeted Christians from their church as well as other churches to buy their cryptocurrency, promising huge returns, the district attorney alleged, but in the end the INDXcoin maintained zero value and more than 300 investors lost their money. The Regalados spent $1.3 million of the proceeds from their token sales on personal expenditures, like a home renovation, the indictment said. The INDXcoin whitepaper stated that the coin was 'engineered to grow as the cryptocurrency market explodes by benchmarking the world's top 100 cryptocurrencies, allowing users to capitalize on growth while mitigating risk.' However, the indictment said this was deceptive. "Eli and Kaitlyn Regalado deceived prospective and current investors, and did not disclose to them: that Defendants lacked liquidity to support the amount of INDXcoin then outstanding and that INDXcoin was not 'pegged' to a certain value or the average of the top-100 cryptocurrencies in the world, but instead was backed by essentially no assets whatsoever and had no real value," the indictment said. Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan initially filed charges against the pair last year. In March the pastor appeared in a video message and stated that the "charges are true." He also said at the time the venture was something he believed God had told him to do. "The Lord told us to walk away from our parking company. ... [H]e 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. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Pastor and glamorous wife said they took $3.4m from flock for luxury purchases at the behest of GOD
A Colorado pastor and his wife have been indicted on dozens of charges related to an alleged cryptocurrency scam they are accused of masterminding to steal millions of dollars from their congregants, according to the Denver District Attorney's Office. Eli and Kaitlyn Regalado, who together ran the online-only Victorious Grace Church, received almost $3.4 million from investors who were buying into what they thought was the couple's sophisticated crypto token, according to the indictment. The token, called INDXcoin, was hyped up to Christians at their church and other churches by Eli Regalado as an investment with 'an unparalleled risk-to-return ratio' that made it a 'coveted cryptocurrency to both new and experienced crypto enthusiasts,' the filings say. Investigators claim that the Regalados sought to line their pockets with the creation of INDXcoin and the Kingdom Wealth Exchange, the platform where the cryptocurrency would be traded. Approximately $1.3 million, or 39 percent of the funds given to them by investors, 'went directly to Eli and Kaitlyn Regalado' and were used for their personal expenses, according to the charges. The couple used the money to pay for a lavish lifestyle rather than the development or administration of the crypto project they claimed to be running, investigators said. This included home renovations, high-end merchandise, payment for an au pair, car payments, airline tickets, manicures and many other personal expenses, according to the indictment. The indictment does not specify what home renovations were commissioned and whether these related to their personal residence in Denver. The couple's home was once a modest-looking ranch with five bedrooms and three bathrooms, according to Zillow. But pictures from October 2024 show that the entire structure was torn down to build a new, bigger two-story home. Fraud allegations against the Regalados surfaced in November 2023 when the Kingdom Wealth Exchange was shut down by state regulators. Before the exchange was shutdown investors were told that there were 30million INDXcoins in circulation, meaning the company should have made $300million from the coins based on their supposed valuation of $1 to $1.50 per coin. State investigators found just $30,000 in the bank. In a since-deleted video on January 2024, Eli Regalado admitted that he and his wife pocketed at least some of the money from INDXcoin, but insisted that 'God is not done with this project,' according to the indictment. Using God and religious devotion as selling points became a consistent theme in the couple's videos promoting the coin, which they first created in 2022. In an August 2022 video cited by the indictment Eli Regalado said: 'It was last October [20]21, that the Lord brought this cryptocurrency to me. He said "Take this to my people for a wealth transfer."' People who wanted to make an investment of less than $5,000 were instructed to send their money to Eli Regalado's personal Venmo account, according to the indictment. Anyone spending more than $5,000 was told to wire money to the couple's Wells Fargo bank account, which was 'never connected to INDXcoin, Kingdom Wealth Exchange or any other exchange,' the indictment said. The charging document also delves into the marketing of INDXcoin as a better alternative to stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency that is backed by underlying reserves of another asset such as the US dollar. The couple claimed INDXcoin was pegged to 'the overall momentum of the crypto market,' which they said made it immune to so-called pump-and-dump schemes, according to the indictment. 'The defendants represented their coins as an index of the top 100 cryptocurrencies and used technical sounding terms to confuse investors when in fact the coins were essentially backed by no assets whatsoever,' investigators claimed. Eli and Kaitlyn Regalado now face 40 felony charges of theft, securities fraud and racketeering. The largest loss a person or organization suffered by investing in INDXcoin was $200,000, according to the indictment. The indictment also contains at least four pages containing the names of witnesses. All of them are redacted. 'These charges mark a major step forward in our work to hold the Regalados accountable for their alleged crimes and to bring a measure of justice to the victims,' Denver District Attorney John Walsh said in a statement. 'I want to thank the prosecutors and investigators in my office, and, particularly, the investigators with the Colorado Division of Securities and the Colorado Attorney General's Office, whose outstanding work on the case resulted in this indictment.' The couple is scheduled to appear in court Thursday for a bail hearing.
