A Denver pastor accused of stealing $1.3 million from investors apparently attended a church conference in Zambia where he gave sermons on God and his cryptocurrency after missing a Monday court hearing.
Rev. Eli Regalado is being sued by the Colorado Division of Securities for fraud after he sold millions of dollars in worthless cryptocurrency to investors, pocketing at least $1.3 million for himself, according to court documents.
The Denver pastor appeared at Gifted Faith Ministry’s Glory Shift Conference in Zambia multiple days this week after arriving in the country Monday afternoon, when he was scheduled to be in court, according to photos and videos posted by the Zambia church on Facebook where Regalado is both introduced by church members and named in the captions.
Regalado’s most recent hearing was set for 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29, according to court records, but one video interview from the Gifted Faith Ministry shows he was already in Zambia at 4:30 a.m. Mountain Time that day.
Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, told Denver District Court Judge David Goldberg they would be out of town and asked to move the court hearing last week, BusinessDen reported. When Goldberg declined to reschedule it, the pair left the country anyway.
The Regalados run the online-only Victorious Grace Church in Denver and allegedly targeted Christians in the area with offers for their cryptocurrency, INDXcoin. The currency was only sold on their Kingdom Wealth Exchange, which permanently closed on Nov. 1.
Despite the pending civil case, Regalado has delivered multiple sermons about cryptocurrency and finance topics — including one on Monday and another on Wednesday, according to videos and livestreams on the Zambian church’s Facebook page where he is seen being introduced and speaking on stage.
In Monday’s sermon, Regalado promised to show the crowd how to “make money the Kingdom way,” claiming God had gifted him with a “whole world of cryptocurrency.”
The Denver complaint claims at least 39% of the cryptocurrency profits, or $1.3 million, went directly to the Regalados or their personal expenses, which the pastor admitted to in a video that he posted online that has since been deleted.
“So, 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 in the video. “There has been $1.3 million that has been taken out of a total of $3.4 million. Out of that $1.3 [million], half of a million dollars went to the IRS and a few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel that the Lord told us to do.”
In the court hearing Regalado missed on Monday, Goldberg ruled that state regulators can continue to freeze the Regaloados’ accounts, along with those of their companies and church, BusinessDen reported. He also barred the local couple from selling their cryptocurrency or other investments in Colorado.
The court’s preliminary injunction also mandated an order for nondestruction of records.
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