Case details

Pastor Eligio Regalado targeted Christians in Denver, Colorado. The state’s securities commissioner filed a legal complaint against him and his wife, Caitlin, alleging both violated anti-fraud laws.

Regalado, however, came up with a convenient and highly dubious defense: God told him to do it.

The Lord said, “I want you to build it.” We took God’s word and sold the cryptocurrency with no clear way out.
– says Regalado.

In the lawsuit, investigators alleged that the duo promoted the cryptocurrency, called INDXcoin, as a “low-risk, high-return investment” even though it was “illiquid and virtually worthless.”

“We allege that Mr. Regalado took advantage of the trust and faith of his Christian community. He made promises of incredible wealth while selling them nearly worthless cryptocurrencies.”Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan said in a statement. He adds that Regalado and his wife used the millions of dollars they embezzled to “maintain their lavish lifestyle.”

In a video response, the online pastor admitted he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars renovating his home because “God told us to do this”.

The defendant is now trying to show that he is sorry for what happened. “We started a swap. The swap tech didn’t work. Everything went bad. I know it looks terrible.”says.

This ridiculous excuse highlights the dangers of digital literacy, especially when it comes to unsupported and largely unregulated cryptocurrencies. It’s easy to create new currencies and exchanges with open source code, so be very skeptical about this and don’t be too quick to trust promises of easy money.