So I think the title of this article
pretty much sums up what we're gonna be talking about today.
Pastor accused of three million dollar crypto scam
says he may have misheard God.
Oh...
No, man, what makes you say that?
What makes you think that God wouldn't want you to
do a rug pull on your congregation?
That's crazy.
This story's been in the news the past couple weeks,
I'm only a little bit familiar with the details,
so I had my
(rock music) elite team of content supervisors,
uh, which is just one guy, his name is Robert,
go through, and (music stops) find me
all of the necessary information
so I can fully understand this story
and relay it to you.
Everybody say, "thank you Robert." (sparkling sound)
(wholesome music)
Now everybody say, "thank you Danny." (sparkling sound)
(wholesome music continues)
Now everybody say, "love you Danny?" (distorted sparkling sound)
(music stops) And now let's get into it.
An online pastor was charged with civil fraud
for selling a cryptocurrency that regulators described as
"practically worthless."
His explanation: God told him to do it,
although it's possible (laughing) he misheard.
It's interesting that he's only saying that
he MIGHT'VE misheard
now that he's being called out for it.
He got caught, and now he's like,
"Well yeah, I might've misheard him."
Something tells me in the initial stages of this scheme
he wasn't going around telling people, like,
"Now I might've misheard God,
but I'm pretty sure he wants you to buy this cryptocurrency.
God's been really into the blockchain lately
He thinks it's the future."
I like that the regulators described it as
"practically worthless."
It's not completely worthless.
But it's-- it's pretty much worthless.
(chill jaunty music) Eh, it's kinda fun to buy, I guess.
You know, it's fun to get involved in a little project,
setting up your crypto wallet and everything,
but for all intents and purposes
this will make you broke.
This is a horrible decision to buy.
LITTLE fun though.
Colorado securities commissioner filed a legal complaint
against... Eligio.
Eliggy-o.
(mispronouncing, which he will do for most of the video) Regaldo.
Eligio Regaldo.
Who goes by Eli--
Oh thank God.
and his wife, Kaitlyn Regaldo, last week.
The couple raised nearly 3.2 million dollars
by targeting Denver's Christian community with the cryptocurrency,
marked as INDXcoin, the complaint said.
Sorry, you're not even gonna give it a Christian name?
IND-- Index?
Indix?
(shocked sound) In-dicks?
You put these crypto coins in dicks?
Shoulda called it God Coin or something.
Something creative.
Tithe Coin, maybe? I don't know.
Investigators accused the couple of violating
Colorado's anti-fraud licensing and registration laws.
They alleged the cryptocurrency was promoted as
low risk, high profit investment,
while it was actually illiquid and practically useless.
Well, hold on now. Maybe he didn't say who it was high profit for.
It WAS high profit, it was just for him.
Wait, high profit...
Are you sure he didn't mean
high PROPHET? (angelic choir)
Jake, on the screen, can you spell "prophet" with a PH?
Like the Biblical type of prophet?
And then you can also keep me explaining this part of the joke in.
That way if anyone's listening to this and not watching
they can still get the joke that I made.
Thank you.
(angelic choir)
"Look, I said it was a low-risk investment,
and I am a high prophet!
I was high when I heard this from God,
that's why I might've misheard him."
Cryptocurrency is usually able to be converted into cash
or other currencies through a digital platform or trading exchange.
The Lord said:
(distorted deep voice) "I want you to build this,"
Regaldo said.
We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit.
From this quote, like, if this is an exact quote
I'm having trouble seeing how you might've misheard him.
He seems completely clear.
He either said, "I want you to build this cryptocurrency"
or "love thy neighbor,"
I can't remember exactly which one it was.
It was one of those two, though.
Again, I'm SUPER high. (The Next Episode plays in background)
Then he says, "We took God at his word
and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit."
Now it sounds like he's calling God a liar.
"Look, I'll say it guys, it's our fault.
Our fault we trusted God."
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.
I don't think I've ever been to church
and my pastor started preaching about
(club music, ka-ching sound) outlandish promises of wealth.
I feel like if your pastor starts saying stuff like that
there's definitely a problem.
That being said,
Uh, the pastor totally abused his privilege and his trust
that his congregation had in him.
That's insane.
This is someone that's supposed to be like a spiritual guide to these people,
and you know what, to be fair
they might be praying a lot more after this has happened to them.
But I don't...
Still don't really think it was right.
The couple sold the digital asset to more than three hundred investors
between June 2022 and April 2023.
Three hundred investors...
And made three million dollars?
Wait, what? How does that add up?
How much were these people investing, dude?
Three million divided by three hundred.
So on average, members of his congregation spent
ten thousand dollars on this?
They got three hundred people to spend on average
ten thousand dollars on this cryptocurrency.
Dude, that's insane!
Oh my god, that's messed up.
I hate to say it, man.
I think he misheard God. (depressed sound effect)
Either I misheard God, and every one of you
who prayed and came in, you as well.
No, wait. Hold on.
THEY didn't mishear anything.
They heard YOU.
He's saying,
"Either I misheard God and so did all of you--
I mean, we all did, right?"
They're all like,
"No, YOU said it.
We heard YOU.
YOU were supposed to be telling us what he said."
Or two, God is still not done with this project.
Uh, I unfortunately am.
I have already sold all my cryptocurrency
and yours is now worthless,
but, y'know, you guys might still have something going on,
I don't really know.
I'm not involved anymore.
Okay, now it looks like we've got some kind of
video apology maybe?
I think this is the pastor here.
So this update is to really just take some things head on,
I'm not reading from a script
and I didn't prepare any notes like I normally do.
Yeah, you should 100% be reading from a script, dude.
You really fucked up.
You should've written something down. Do not freestyle this, man.
Also, you know.
Beautiful house behind him. Beautiful view.
I-- actually, I can't tell if this is real.
Is he green screened into this or is this his real house?
It kinda looks like it might be green screen
and I'm wondering, like,
is his house even nicer than this?
Like this is what he green screened himself into
to make it seem like he's not living a lavish lifestyle.
What does his actual house look like?
It's just Heaven.
(angelic choir)
Kaitlyn and I are being charged in a civil charge
for basically selling millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency
that is deemed worthless by the state.
I think it's probably also being deemed worthless by
like, the value of the cryptocurrency.
I'm assuming that this guy, like,
made all of his followers buy it, and then he sold it
so that it's now completely worthless.
So I would have to guess that it's not just the
regulator's opinion.
There's like an objective value to cryptocurrency.
Any cryptocurrency, you can look at what the value is.
It's not like it's subjective.
It's not like they're telling you
your hairstyle is worthless or something. (sad piano music)
That would be messed up.
There is no exit for people who bought.
So everyone that's watching this who has put money into this,
who wanted to take money out, you've been unable to do that.
How did HE exit then?
I don't know how cryptocurrency enough works
to give a detailed analysis of this,
but how did HE make money from it, then?
If no one else can sell it?
I guess he figured out some way.
The charges are that Kaitlyn and I pocketed 1.3 million dollars
and I just wanna come out and say that those charges
are true.
(Danny laughs)
So there's been 1.3 million dollars that's been taken out of, I think
it was a total of 3.4 million.
So you exited!
So what is all this about "no exit?"
There's no exit.
You just said you sold it!
You exited!
Tell everyone else how to do that!
I hope that, um, in this video
I'm not coming across as like bashing Christianity or anything.
I think that his congregation was totally swindled by this guy.
This could've happened in any religion, probably.
This guy is just a con artist.
So how this whole thing started
is the Lord told us, in '21, to walk away
from our marketing company,
and then he took us into this cryptocurrency.
Well, that cryptocurrency turned out to be a scam.
That's so crazy to, uh, describe something that YOU made
"turning out to be a scam."
Like, "We had no idea."
He's describing the cryptocurrency as having, like,
a mind of its own.
"It double crossed us, this-- this dirty coin."
It's like, YOU made it.
That's like painting a picture of the moon
and then being like, uh,
"The picture turned out to be a moon!
We didn't realize it until we were done.
I was looking at the moon, I was painting it,
and all of a sudden the picture turned out to be a moon!"
So the people who bought this, who are already basically
4Xed leveraged on this,
and so the Lord says, "Give that to 'em,
but also give them a 10X."
And I'm like, "Well, where is this liquidity gonna come from?"
and the Lord says, "Trust me."
Sorry, was he in like a business conference room with God?
Usually when you hear, like, the kind of
"wealth televangelist" pastors talk about it,
even they're not having, like, these in-depth conversations.
They're just getting, like, signs and stuff.
This guy was writing code with God.
Which makes the claim that you "misheard" even wilder,
cause it's like,
you had this multi-day long development process,
you were getting instructions the entire time,
and now you're like,
"Well, eh, I guess I misheard all of them.
They were all wrong.
He was just talking about, he was just...
just said I should go on vacation.
Dammit."
So we have the records to prove all this.
And then as we're sowing all this money--
Why is he saying he sowed all of the money?
We're sowing all this money--
Is that, like, to avoid using the word "stole?"
"Yeah, you know, your actions have consequences, man.
You reap what you sow.
You walk into a jewelry store,
you hold up a gun,
You sort of sow chaos in the store
and then you reap the diamonds."
And so we sowed a hundred thousand of that.
And then from that point forward,
things really started escalating and just continued.
Basically all I'm getting from this video
is he's, like, completely admitting to everything
and his excuse, of course, is that God made him do it
or told him to do it.
But at the end of the day, he is just, like,
"Guys, I've been accused of a crime,
so let me just defend myself by saying, uh,
(evil battle music) here's how I committed the crime,
I did do it.
(music stops) There was a little old lady
walking down the street,
so I did walk up to her, and in my defense,
(music starts) I did push her down and take her bag.
(music stops) Now, that seems ugly,
but let me be clear
(music starts) that I did also shoot her in the knees.
Okay, so now we've got a LinkedIn profile
for this company, INDXcoin.
The best of crypto with just one coin!
INDXcoin empowers you to participate in the best of crypto technology
being: losing a ton of money,
including Bitcoin, altcoins, NFTs,
the metaverse, DeFi, and ETFs,
without becoming an overnight crypto expert.
Okay, but to be clear, we're NOT participating
in any of these, right?
It's just INDXcoin?
(fun dance music) You get to participate in Bitcoin,
NFTs, the metaverse,
without having to participate in all of that
(booing sounds) Bitcoin, NFTs, the metaverse.
Damn, there are no jobs available at INDXcoin right now.
That sucks.
I was gonna apply, I hear the salary's really good.
And then here are the two scammers listed
as the two only employees.
The wife, her bio is "Jesus, family, and business!"
and the husband's is,
"Jesus, PEOPLE, and business."
Dude, if I was his wife, I'd be so pissed off about that bio.
(ominous battle music) "Who's people? Am I people?
You just love everybody the same, huh?
Everybody's people?
Where am I on the list?
Where am I?"
(music stops) And they've also got a website.
indxcoin.com.
It's crazy that all of this is still...
up and running.
Like, he's being investigated for it,
he actively admitted that it turned out to be a scam,
against his own will.
But the website's still up. Can I still buy INDXcoin?
(triumphant fanfare) Oh, buy now!
Oh, okay. You can't buy it anymore.
Proofed by Hacken?
What does that mean?
Is this who made it? Hacken?
You cannot buy a cryptocurrency
(laughs) made by a company called Hacken.
"Yeah, we're called Hacken cause we're gonna hack into your computer
and steal all your information.
You should've known, it was in the name.
We named our company
We're Gonna Hack You.
A coin that will transform the world and you along with it.
Join a community. Access courses.
Enjoy content. And create wealth.
I gotta say, there's no, like,
religious messaging in this website anywhere
that I can find.
Let me see if I can control F God real quick.
(error sound) No.
No God or Jesus anywhere on this website.
You could at least credit the guy that came up with it, dude.
Dang.
Okay, this video's called, "INDXcoin Update"
from June of 2023.
So this seems to be while the scam was going on.
He's giving a little update, let's see.
Good morning INDXcoin, good evening INDXcoin
wherever you guys are calling in from--
Where are YOU calling in from?
Just out of curiosity.
You're in front of a green screen again.
Does he have like, an actual church,
or is it like an online-only church
and he's always in front of a green screen?
Cause I know those do exist, too.
Show us your house, man.
Maybe this is before he stole all that money.
He really did have to use the green screen back then
cause his house was small.
Now he has to use it to make his house look small.
Is he using the green screen cause he's, like,
already on the run from something else?
Some previous con?
"Don't mind the green screen behind me, guys,
I actually am in the Witness Protection Program.
A lot people wanna find me
and a lot of people wanna hurt me.
Heh heh.
I have torn multiple families apart."
Wherever you guys are calling in from,
good morning, good afternoon,
and uh, goodnight.
He just goes to sleep.
"Good morning, good afternoon,
and, uh,
fuck it! Goodnight."
(Brahm's Lullabye plays, snoring sound)
For us, we've been look at this,
we've been building out INDXcoin, getting ready,
uh, we got our license which everyone thought was impossible--
They got their cryptocurrency selling license, which nobody
thought they could do.
Why do I not believe that?
Feel like that that's super easy to do.
Countless influencers have started cryptocurrencies, dude,
I don't think it's that hard.
We're waiting for liquidity, we're waiting for people
to basically come in and buy,
so that people can kinda come out and uh, sell.
Uh, everyone's gonna get rich, that's what he's saying.
And right now he's saying,
"All these people have bought in,
we're just waiting for MORE people to buy,
that way you guys can all sell.
(carefree music) And me too. We're all gonna sell
once more people buy."
So it's kinda sounding like
he might not have even anticipated this being a rug pull
that only benefitted him.
He might've been TRYING
to make a Ponzi scheme. (police sirens)
You know, where the first people make profit
because you give them the next people's money,
and it just keeps going like that,
and of course eventually you're gonna run out of people.
And money.
But for a while it works.
(laughing) But it sounds like--
it-- the coin was so fucked up
that it-- he couldn't even do like,
one round of Ponzi.
He just, like, took everybody's money and then nobody could get out
and he was like, "Shit, I gotta get outta here."
So maybe he did intend for SOME people to make money
off of this, I don't know.
This is John 6 verse 1 through 5,
it says, "After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the sea
of Galilee or Tiberius--"
Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, this has nothing to do with cryptocurrency.
I hate to say it, I don't think the people who wrote this part of the Bible
even knew what INDXcoin was, dawg.
Okay, so it looks like the latest update to this story
was January 31st.
Pastor charged with stealing millions seen in Zambia after missing hearing.
Seen in Zambia??
What is he, Bigfoot?
"Oh, there he goes, oh, he's gone!
Dammit, we still can't catch him!"
So he flew to Zambia so he didn't have to go to court?
Denver pastor Eli Regalado, facing civil fraud charges
for allegedly selling millions in a bogus cryptocurrency scheme,
was seen in Zambia teaching about God and finance--
Probably mostly finance.
--at the Gifted Faith Ministry in the company's capital after
missing a court hearing on Monday.
Regalado's appearance at the church's Glory Shift Conference
on multiple days this week comes after he missed
a Monday court hearing, where a preliminary injunction and asset freeze
were granted after he was accused of exploiting
his religious influence to defraud investors.
Oh yeah, here he is.
Wearing the gray hoodie, Pastor Eli visits
a church conference in Zambia after missing a court hearing in Colorado.
Man, he got outta there fast.
Everyone in this picture, you gotta run away from this guy, dude.
(fast-paced action music) He's gonna steal all of your money.
Alright, well, it seems like for now that's where that story has ended.
I hope you guys enjoyed this video,
and I'll see you guys next time.
Uh-buh-bye.