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A Colorado pastor has admitted to pocketing $1.3 million that he and his spouse collected by what authorities name a “cryptocurrency fraud scheme.”
Eligio “Eli” Regalado and Kaitlyn Regalado of Denver, INDXcoin, LLC, Kingdom Wealth Trade LLC “created, marketed and bought a cryptocurrency, often known as the ‘INDXcoin’ to members of the Christian community,” the state’s securities commissioner mentioned in an announcement.
The Colorado Legal professional Normal’s Workplace filed a grievance in Denver District Court alleging that from June 2022 to April 2023, INDXcoin raised almost $3.2 million from greater than 300 people.
The pastor mentioned in a video assertion posted on-line as “lawsuit response” that half one million of the $1.3 million went to the Inside Income Service, with just a few hundred thousand {dollars} going to a “house transform that the Lord informed us to do.”
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Screenshot of Eligio “Eli” Regalado from his “lawsuit response” video posted on-line. (INDXCoin Community Web site)
The pastor alleges the cash collected is deemed “nugatory” by the state as a result of “there isn’t any exit for individuals who have purchased.” He mentioned individuals have been unable to take cash out as a result of the change “failed.”
Representations of cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum and DogeCoin are positioned on PC motherboard in this illustration taken on June 29, 2021. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photograph / Reuters Pictures)
The Regalados run the online-only Victorious Grace Church, in accordance with media outlet BusinessDen, which combed by courtroom information. After subpoenaing the couple’s financial institution information, Tung Chan, the state’s securities commissioner, alleges in the civil fraud lawsuit that the cash was used on a luxurious SUV, jewellery, luxurious purses, beauty dentistry, boat leases and snowmobile adventures, their house transform and an au pair.
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An aerial view of the Denver skyline and state Capitol dome. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Common Photographs Group by way of Getty Photographs / Getty Photographs)
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“We allege that Mr. Regalado took benefit of the belief and religion of his personal Christian community and that he peddled outlandish guarantees of wealth to them when he bought them basically nugatory cryptocurrencies,” Commissioner Chan mentioned in the information launch. “New cash and new exchanges are straightforward to create with open supply code. We need to remind customers to be very skeptical.”
