In late 2022, Eli Regalado, an online preacher and self-declared prophet, was confronted with a worldly problem: He owed employees at his Colorado marketing firm back pay, and they were starting to grumble.
According to one ex-employee, Regalado made a proposal. Rather than give the worker cash, he would offer payment in a cryptocurrency known as INDXcoin, which he had founded and was selling to churchgoers around the country.
“He’s like, ‘Pray about it,’” the ex-staffer told The Daily Beast. “And I’m like, ‘The Lord told me no.’”
That turned out to be a righteous move. This month, Colorado’s Securities Commissioner filed civil fraud charges against Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, alleging that they used their online ministry, Victorious Grace Church, to dupe over 300 INDXcoin investors out of $3.2 million—almost half of which was misappropriated for their personal benefit.
The Regalados allegedly used the money for jewelry, handbags, cosmetic dentistry, luxury vacations, boat rentals, snowmobile adventures, home renovations, the financing of a Range Rover, and even an au pair. They also transferred more than $290,000 to Victorious Grace Church and paid tens of thousands of dollars to other church leaders who sold INDXcoin, the complaint states.
In a video to his followers that has since gone viral, Regalado cast the debacle as a divine misunderstanding.
“The charges are that Kaitlyn and I pocketed $1.3 million. And I just want to come out and say that those charges are true,” he said.
“He had a salesman-like charm … I watch out for people like this nowadays if they remind me of him.”
— Eli Regalado’s former intern
Later, he elaborated, “We sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit. We did. We took God at his word.”
Regalado, 44, explained that much of that money had gone to the IRS, while hundreds of thousands of dollars was used for “a home remodel that the Lord told us to do.”
“One of two things have happened,” he continued. “Either I misheard God, and every one of you who prayed and came in, you as well… Or two, God is still not done with this project, and he’s going to do a new thing.”
Reached by The Daily Beast, Kaitlyn Regalado declined to comment. “Thank you,” she added. “God bless.”
According to the Colorado complaint, the Regalados marketed their unregistered securities by quoting the Bible, telling people their investment would bring “abundance” and “blessings.”
“It was last October [20]21, that the Lord brought this cryptocurrency to me,” Regalado declared in one video. “He said ‘Take this to my people for a wealth transfer.’ It has been confirmed a hundred times since then.”
The lawsuit says the couple failed to inform prospective investors that they weren’t actually licensed to sell securities and had no crypto experience; that INDXcoin wasn’t backed by any assets; that the coin could only be traded on their platform Kingdom Wealth Exchange; or that a third-party auditor found INDXcoin and KWE “catastrophically technologically deficient.”
Eli and Kaitlyn Regalado on a video call giving an INDXcoin “liquidity update” to their congregation.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/Facebook
Former acquaintances are stunned by Regalado’s journey: from jail for boosting cars to Denver marketing maven (who raised more than $1 million for Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects) to RV-living online preacher. He claimed to have worked with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales, and he sold online courses on Udemy. (A representative for Wozniak had “never heard of” Regalado and speculated that he may simply have purchased a customized video from Wozniak on Cameo.)
“He had a salesman-like charm,” a former intern for Regalado’s old firm, which he no longer owns, told The Daily Beast. “He got really good at cold calling people and talking them into different things.”
“I watch out for people like this nowadays if they remind me of him,” the ex-intern added.
“You’re out of your mind and you’re in the spirit and that’s the best place to be.”
— Eli Regalado
One former acquaintance, an entrepreneur who mentors young talent, echoed that sentiment: “I think Eli deserves to get what’s coming to him.”
Years before the alleged crypto scam, the entrepreneur sent Regalado a prescient email after he failed to deliver on a promise to develop an online marketing course.
“My hope, Eli, is that you understand that your gift to be able to sell anything to anyone is a gift,” the email said, “but all gifts can easily be destructive as well.”
Regalado has apparently made a similar impression for much of his life. “Even back in high school, I remember he was…
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