--- title: "Pastor Accused of Crypto Scam Says God Told Him to Do It" description: "An online pastor based in Denver, Colorado has been accused of raising nearly $3.2 million as part of a cryptocurrency scam." date: "2024-01-23" modified: "2024-01-23" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/pastor-crypto-scam-god-told-him" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Cryptocurrency" - "Future Society" tags: - "cryptocurrencies" - "online scams" - "the digest" --- # Pastor Accused of Crypto Scam Says God Told Him to Do It ![An online pastor based in Denver, Colorado has been accused of raising nearly $3.2 million as part of a cryptocurrency scam.]() *\Image: Eligio Regalado\* ## Heavens Above An online pastor has been accused of pulling in nearly $3.2 million as part of a cryptocurrency scam. As the *[Washington Post]()*[ reports](), pastor Eligio Regalado targeted Christians in Denver, Colorado. The state's securities commissioner later filed a [legal complaint]() against him, alleging Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn Regalado violated anti-fraud laws. For his part, Regalado has since come up with a convenient and highly questionable defense: God told him to do it. "The Lord said: I want you to build this," he told the *WaPo*. "We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit." ## Remain Skeptical In the legal complaint, investigators claimed the couple was promoting the cryptocurrency called INDXcoin as a "low risk, high-profit investment" despite it being "illiquid and practically useless." "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," said Colorado securities commissioner Tung Chan in an official statement. Worse yet, Regalado and his wife used the millions of dollars they pocketed to "support their lavish lifestyle," per the complaint. In a [video response](), the online pastor admitted to using hundreds of thousands of dollars to remodel his home, something "that the Lord told us to do." At least, Regalados appears to have some regrets about the whole thing. "We launched an exchange," he said in the video. "The exchange technology failed. Things went downhill." "I know this looks terrible," he added. It's a preposterous excuse that highlights the dangers of digital illiteracy, especially when it comes to unbacked and largely unregulated cryptocurrencies. "New coins and new exchanges are easy to create with open source code," Chan said in her statement. "We want to remind consumers to be very skeptical." **More on crypto scams:** *[Crypto Company Says Oops, Its Coin Was Being Used in a Human Trafficking Scam]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()