Denver DA’s Office
Audio By Carbonatix
Divine intervention didn’t save Denver pastor Eli Regalado last week.
A district judge ruled against Eli and his wife, Kaitlyn, on September 12, ordering them to repay nearly $3.4 million that they conned out of Eli’s followers while peddling a bogus cryptocurrency. Judge Heidi Kutcher also prohibited the couple from participating in any private securities transactions in Colorado for twenty years.
The Regalados solicited millions from hundreds of investors, selling them a cryptocurrency called INDXcoin that was “practically worthless,” according to the civil complaint. While they used Bible quotes and promises of blessings to sell the coin, the couple pocketed $1.3 million and spent the money on a Range Rover, home renovations, vacations, luxury handbags and cosmetic dentistry.
“The Regalados are 21st-century false prophets who leveraged the new and promising technology of cryptocurrencies to run an old-fashioned scam, victimizing their own congregants and others,” says Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan, who filed civil fraud charges against the couple in January 2024.
In a video statement posted in January 2024, Eli admitted to taking $1.3 million, claiming the bulk of the money went to the IRS, but “the Lord told us to” spend hundreds of thousands of dollars renovating their home.
Eli, a pastor for the online-only Victorious Grace Church, also blamed God for the idea of creating the cryptocurrency in the first place: “The hand of God is on this project. …What if I get this wrong? What if it doesn’t happen? It’s not on me, it’s on Him,” Eli said in a YouTube live launching INDXcoin in April 2023.
indxcoin.com
Even after the charges were filed against him, Eli said he was hopeful that “God is going to work a miracle in the financial sector” to get his investors their money back.
That miracle never came. Nineteen victims were named in a criminal indictment against the couple, each of whom invested between $10,000 and $200,000 in the cryptocurrency from January 2022 to July 2023.
The couple allegedly targeted Christians from their church and other churches, telling investors the coin was all but guaranteed to bring them “abundance” and “blessings.” But they failed to disclose many damning realities, including that they lacked liquidity to support the coin and that an audit determined the project was not secure or safe, the indictment charges.
“The Court’s holding is a win for Colorado investors, for justice and fair play, and for every legitimate cryptocurrency project out there,” Chan says. “This case of a local pastor scamming Coloradans right here in our cities and towns is the kind of case that shows why we need state regulators on our home front who will fight for small investors — the regular people who are just trying to pay bills, save for retirement, and put food on the table.”
The ruling concludes the bizarre civil trial, during which the Regalados represented themselves in court, BusinessDen reported. At times, the judge had to coach them on how to make motions and objections, and they cited “hallucinated” case law, presumably from using artificial intelligence software to craft a defense.
The Regalados are still facing criminal charges for their Godly grift. They were indicted on forty counts in July: twenty counts of theft, nineteen counts of securities fraud, and one count of violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office. They asked for a public defender in that case, but didn’t qualify.
Eli and Kaitlyn are both due to appear in Denver District Court on October 16.
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Hannah Metzger is a staff writer at Westword, reporting on news, arts and culture since joining the staff in October 2023. She previously worked at publications including Colorado Politics and the Denver Gazette, where she covered the Colorado Legislature, the Denver and Aurora city councils and breaking news. Hannah has been honored with numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Colorado Press Association, Colorado Student Media Association and Denver Press Club. She graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a major in journalism and a minor in political science.
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