God Told Him to Launch a Crypto Venture, Said Pastor. Now He's Accused of Pocketing $1.2M (cnn.com) 120
In Denver, Colorado, a pastor had a message for his congregation, reports CNN.
"After months of prayers and cues from God, he was going to start selling cryptocurrency, he announced in a YouTube video last April." The Signature and Silvergate banks had collapsed weeks earlier, signaling the need to look into other investment options beyond financial institutions, he said. With divine wisdom, he said, he was "setting the rails for God's wealth transfer." Shortly afterward, Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn Regalado, launched a cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, and began selling it to members of his Victorious Grace Church and other Christian communities in the Denver area. They sold it through the Kingdom Wealth Exchange, an online cryptocurrency marketplace he created, controlled and operated.
The Regalados raised more than $3.2 million from over 300 investors, Tung Chang, Securities Commissioner for Colorado, said in a civil complaint. The couple's sales pitches were filled with "prayer and quotes from the Bible, encouraging investors to have faith that their investment ... would lead to 'abundance' and 'blessings,'" the complaint said. But Colorado state regulators say that INDXcoin was "essentially worthless." Instead of helping investors acquire wealth, the Regalados used around $1.3 million of the investment funds to bankroll lavish expenditures, including a Range Rover, jewelry, cosmetic dentistry and extravagant vacations, the complaint said. The money also paid for renovations to the Regalados' Denver home, the complaint said.
In a stunning video statement posted online on January 19 — several days after the civil charges were filed — Eli Regalado did not dispute that he and his wife profited from the crypto venture. "The charges are that Kaitlyn and I pocketed 1.3 million dollars, and I just want to come out and say that those charges are true," he said, adding, "A few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel that the Lord told us to do...."
Regalado also said that he and his wife used about half a million dollars of their investors' funds to pay taxes to the IRS.
CNN reports that in videos Regalado explains how God "convinced him that it was a safe and profitable investment venture." ("You read it correctly. God's hand is on INDXcoin and we are launching!" explains the launch video's description.)
"The Regalados used technical terms to confuse investors and misled them into believing that the coins were valued at between $10-$12 even though they were purchased for $1.50 or, at times, given away, the complaint said."
"After months of prayers and cues from God, he was going to start selling cryptocurrency, he announced in a YouTube video last April." The Signature and Silvergate banks had collapsed weeks earlier, signaling the need to look into other investment options beyond financial institutions, he said. With divine wisdom, he said, he was "setting the rails for God's wealth transfer." Shortly afterward, Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn Regalado, launched a cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, and began selling it to members of his Victorious Grace Church and other Christian communities in the Denver area. They sold it through the Kingdom Wealth Exchange, an online cryptocurrency marketplace he created, controlled and operated.
The Regalados raised more than $3.2 million from over 300 investors, Tung Chang, Securities Commissioner for Colorado, said in a civil complaint. The couple's sales pitches were filled with "prayer and quotes from the Bible, encouraging investors to have faith that their investment ... would lead to 'abundance' and 'blessings,'" the complaint said. But Colorado state regulators say that INDXcoin was "essentially worthless." Instead of helping investors acquire wealth, the Regalados used around $1.3 million of the investment funds to bankroll lavish expenditures, including a Range Rover, jewelry, cosmetic dentistry and extravagant vacations, the complaint said. The money also paid for renovations to the Regalados' Denver home, the complaint said.
In a stunning video statement posted online on January 19 — several days after the civil charges were filed — Eli Regalado did not dispute that he and his wife profited from the crypto venture. "The charges are that Kaitlyn and I pocketed 1.3 million dollars, and I just want to come out and say that those charges are true," he said, adding, "A few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel that the Lord told us to do...."
Regalado also said that he and his wife used about half a million dollars of their investors' funds to pay taxes to the IRS.
CNN reports that in videos Regalado explains how God "convinced him that it was a safe and profitable investment venture." ("You read it correctly. God's hand is on INDXcoin and we are launching!" explains the launch video's description.)
"The Regalados used technical terms to confuse investors and misled them into believing that the coins were valued at between $10-$12 even though they were purchased for $1.50 or, at times, given away, the complaint said."
A warning to well-meaning spiritualists out there: (Score:5, Insightful)
If you cast your mind out looking for answers, there's things out there besides God that may answer. If the responses you get don't follow the teachings, be skeptical.
Re:A warning to well-meaning spiritualists out the (Score:5, Funny)
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I'm really not, but that's an interesting enough take that I'm curious if you're willing to expand upon why you think that based just on this statement. I mean, I assume you're just trying to be insulting without bothering to put much thought into it, so you probably don't actually have a coherent explanation, but if you do have one, please lay it on me.
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why you think that based just on this statement.
Because of your wording and your ending statement. It's like people saying the Earth is flat, being shown this [imgur.com], and saying because it doesn't conform to their beliefs it should be ignored.
If you think a person should dismiss what another being says because their words don't conform to what some little book says, it's called being in a cult. If you are unwilling to listen and process another point of view because a little book says otherwise, it's called bein
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That's not what happened here though. God wouldn't have told him to scam people for cryptocurrency then embezzle a bunch of it. Something might have, maybe demons, maybe aliens, maybe just his imagination, but not God. I'm sorry if that offends you as a non-believer in the concept of God entirely, but it's the objective truth and your argument is childishly irrational. Maybe you should spend more time wondering why any mention of God brings you to a frothing rage regardless of context or accuracy.
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God wouldn't have told him to scam people for cryptocurrency then embezzle a bunch of it.
Are you implying "God" never "tells" people to do bad things, or only your particular personal definition of God?
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At best, God is a very irresponsible pet owner.
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Seeing as there is no such thing as "God" in any sense of the term, "God" cannot "tell" people to do bad, or good, things at all.
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Which is just them telling themselves to do either good or bad - simple as that.
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In this particular story, I found it highly doubtful that this "pastor" heard anything, not even in his head after taking too much sinus medicine. I believe that he flat out lied in order to make money. I don't think anyone should think these sorts of crimes are beyond these pastors given past history.
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Welcome to Meinong's Jungle, Santa is busy today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Why say this as an Anonymous Coward? I fully agree with it and I don't believe in the Christian god. It is just smart psychology in this case.
Re:A warning to well-meaning spiritualists out the (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, according to the Old Testament God has no problem telling you to do terrible things just to see if you would do them. Obedience is seen as a greater virtue than the courage to refuse to do something evil (like murder one's own innocent child).
Of course, God stopped Abraham from following through with the murder at the last minute. But only once Abraham had committed to the act. And God didn't stop the murder of Achan's innocent children (it was punishment for a crime Achan committed without their involvement). Nor the murder and forced marriage of plenty of other children when God decided their land should belong to His people instead.
So, based on the Bible, this notion that God won't tell you to do something evil seems a bit shaky. I can see why someone who takes a literal interpretation of this book might convince himself that God wants him to reap great profit from cryptocurrency.
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This story is the one that makes me think if God were real he would be a very vain evil god.
Re:A warning to well-meaning spiritualists out the (Score:4, Insightful)
According to the OT God told Abraham to murder his own son, only stopping Abraham at the last moment. God is a fucked up dude, so maybe He did tell this putz to scam people. God has done far far far worse (if you believe the Bible).
For me, it's just another con artist using religion to gain money. He's at the lower tier of con men; the big ones like Joseph Smith, L Ron Hubbard and Billy Graham wanted power.
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So what you're saying is: An imaginary nonexistent creature didn't tell the guy to scam? Probably correct. Just stop there, though, and you're good. You don't need to ruin everything by pretending you believe in some sort of god when anyone with an ounce of common sense would find the whole concept ridiculous.
We're all born atheists. It takes childhood grooming to turn kids into theists.
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Um, actually
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r... [sciencedaily.com].
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"He who made kittens, put snakes in the grass."
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Uh, I have to point out that he said "be skeptical", not "dismiss".
If you're hearing voices, rather than just doing what they say, it might be smart to think about what they're telling you to do a bit before doing it. They might be lying about bob from accounting being a brain-sucking alien in a meat-suit that you need to take an axe to.
Now, if they tell you to put 10% of your wages into the 401k because your job has 100% matching for that, well, that's actually generally good advice.
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I suspect you are being too restrictive in your interpretation. I fully agree with what was originally said.
You should have values and principles that you follow in your daily life. One example for me is: If you are attacking anyone physically, you had better have an externally validated from a neutral source reason for performing the attack.
That means that if the "anyone who answers" is telling me to attack someone, I will take a step back and review what is actually being asked.
I think my explanation is m
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is there a skeptical Mormon?
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There are Christian scientists apparently. Stranger things have happened.
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There are "christian" scientists and christian "scientists".
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We really need to annoy the fuck out of people destroying language. They do so much harm long term abusing words like science or christian or constitutional... Anybody can create their own definitions and words but it takes a collective effort to disallow acceptance.
Yes, "word police" but not really police... its metaphorical use of police... oh nevermind, we're fucked.
subtly is dead.
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Not to be confused with Christian Science, ie, the Church of Jesus Christ Scientist. Which isn't really Christian nor science.
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Hell, at least I'd still find some moral compass in a Christian scientist.
I think it's much less certain to find morality in someone who believes in nonsensical mumbo-jumbo and would like no better than to make you believe in it too.
Also, remember: Christians are people whose symbol for love and the glory of their God is a torture instrument designed to kill a man with as long and as terrible an agony as possible - often adorned with a terrible-looking figure of the most well-known man to have suffered that agony in history.
Anybody who can see anything good in that symbol and is
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is there a skeptical Mormon?
Not that anyone is aware of. The indoctrination of conformity is well-established. Only those who have left the cult will suddently find themselves skeptical, particularly of what they were taught.
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If you cast your mind out looking for answers, there's things out there besides God that may answer.
Indeed! They're called science and critical thinking.
If the responses you get don't follow the teachings, be skeptical.
Correct again: whenever something I'm told doesn't follow my school teachings, I'm very skeptical.
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Indeed! They're called science and critical thinking.
And Aliens! Can't forget the Greys, or the Lizard Aliens, or the ones inhabiting the Astral Plane, or . . .
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If you cast your mind out looking for answers, there's things out there besides God that may answer.
Since it's all just faith and interpretation anyway, I'm going to go with "Cryptocurrency is proof God hates us and wants us to be miserable."
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That's no way to enjoy the bounty of fleecing the... er, the lord.
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Which teachings? There are so many of them and all are deeply corrupt.
Seriously, are you out here to promote stupidity or what? All these "teachings" are man-made propaganda, nothing else. If you want sound ethics, looking at religion is not a path that will get good results.
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"If the responses you get don't follow the teachings"?
It's even simpler than that. If you have a claim, prove it. What is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
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Maybe he just needed more and sexier churches? This scam group [justice.gov] had set up the Satanic Church of Bitcoin, the Church of the Invisible Hand, the Crypto Church of New Hampshire, and more.
Even better? The ring leader dodged charges of distributing kiddy pr0n [wkbkradio.com] and yet has hundreds of sycophants [freekeene.com] defending him. What a fucked up timeline.
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Headline summary: Old scam uses new scam technique.
The more things change the more they stay the same. This is an age old story. Religious leader deviates from traditional scriptures and teachings because it's all about "faith". "God spoke to me" is a statement that cannot be disputed or verified, and it is told to a group that already is predisposed to unquesting acceptance of what their (and only their) religious leader says. There are a lot of tiny cults of personality out there disguised as churches.
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There are an infinite number of things that can answer back, therefor it is statistically unlikely that any human being could speak to the creator of the Universe simply by thinking about a particular bronze age deity that was one part of a polytheistic cultural practice that turned into a monotheistic religion over time.
He was correct (Score:3, Insightful)
God is murderer, thief, scammer, rapist, maimer... look at what His children do.
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God is murderer, thief, scammer, rapist, maimer... look at what His children do.
God created man in his own image. Problem was, he also had a lot to drink that day.
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When you look at religions throughout the ages, you can't help but agree: Man created god(s) in his image. Every single time.
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Re:He was correct (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone stereotypes
Stereotypes exist for a reason. If you don't like them, don't be one.
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Stereotypes exist because human brains like categories. Having a unique category for every unique person or circumstance it a bit much to hold on one's head. So stereotypes exist even in people who are trying to actively avoid stereotyping.
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I like rational people. What you just said was rational. Good job sir or ma'am.
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Pre-enlightenment and post-enlightenment. Where enlightenment means the Age of Reason. Pre-enlightenment there was the authority of the king and the authority of the church and this authority flows downhill and those downhill just accept the teachings as they are. Or for non-European cultures, substitute "king" and "church" with their local equivalents. Post-enlightenment, you'd discover ideas through logic, reasoning, experimentation. Not just for science but for other things; like government, society
Re:He was correct (Score:4, Interesting)
Jesus he loves me (Score:2)
and He knows Bitcoin is right.
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Not to be confused with Ghost's cover [youtube.com]
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You beat me to it. That's the censored version, here's the full-length uncut version https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Who's the con man? (Score:2)
God "convinced him that it was a safe and profitable investment venture."
So he's claiming God conned him. Good luck proving that in court.
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20% of Americans are Evangelical (gullible suckers.) Only needs 1 of those on the jury to not convict him.
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I wonder what his theological argument here is?
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"The devil made me do it. (He used an AI to sound like God).
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There are categories of churches, especially in America, where the ultimate authority lies in the local pastor. Many of these don't have theological seminaries even, so I assume that theology isn't necessarily big with hem. Theology is often ignored if it gets in the way of the goal; everything gets ignored by someone at some times if it gets in the way of a goal.
Of course Occam's Razor has the simplest answer: he doesn't worry about theology because he's lying in order to make money. The religious phrasing
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So their followers are too dumb to see the scam? Makes sense.
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Maybe not "dumb" but taught since birth to follow authority and not to question. There are plenty of people who used to be in this category that snapped out of it (maybe their authority figure got caught in a scandal, etc) after which they seemed to have a healthier level of skepticism.
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One reason teaching religion to kids should illegal and punished as severe child abuse. Yes, I realize this is not practical at this time.
From the playbook of Jim Baker (Score:3)
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I have seen the error of my ways.
Ask forgiveness.
Wait an appropriate amount of time.
Start new scheme.
Repeat as necessary.
That entire post can be condensed into one word: 'religion'.
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Asking for forgiveness for stealing sure beats praying for riches when it comes to results.
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You also need to cry on TV, and your whife needs to cry enough that the makeup is running.
God's wealth transfer (Score:4, Funny)
He should have stuck to shoving camels through the eye of a needle. It's easier.
Matthew 19:24
Re:God's wealth transfer (Score:5, Funny)
He should have stuck to shoving camels through the eye of a needle. It's easier.
That's a great idea Brain, but where are we going to get a hydraulic press that big this time of night?
Where is Jesus ... (Score:2)
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Judging from what I hear from various athletes, he's probably watching a football game.
Funny thing about religion (Score:2)
The ones that profess to be the most religious quite often turn out to be fake virtue-signallers that do not at all believe what they preach.
That money was just resting in my account. (Score:3)
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I hear you're a crypto-scammer now, Father.
It's like kiddie fiddling, they can just confess their "sin" to other preachers, receive divine forgiveness and claim immunity from the law because God forgave them. .
What, again? (Score:2)
Oh. No, we're just rehashing old news. Heck, I could've gone to Fark for that.
Jump off a roof (Score:2)
Original sin? (Score:5, Insightful)
Religion is the original grift.
Re:Original sin? (Score:4, Insightful)
Religion was invented when the first con-man met the first dupe and realized that he could con the latter into sustaining his worthless existence by pretending to speak for the Big WooWoo.
Re: Original sin? (Score:2)
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You sure that's an actual religion and not just something invented to counter the "Jesus take the wheel" bullshit?
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Oddly enough... (Score:2)
By putting the scam right out in the open he might be more honest than the average player in the crypto space...
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Well, his dupes are used to being conned out of their money, he doesn't really have to hide that, that's pretty much par for the course in his business.
"Value" (Score:3)
"The Regalados used technical terms to confuse investors and misled them into believing that the coins were valued at between $10-$12 even though they were purchased for $1.50 or, at times, given away, the complaint said."
A thing's "value" is whatever somebody is willing to pay for it. If the Regalados were willing to buy the coins back for $10-$12, then that was their value. What's there to dispute?
The grift gets updated to the 21st century (Score:3)
Because, well, "God told me to fleece the flock" isn't exactly a new one. That's basically the staple of megachurches since their inception.
Doesn't the bible... (Score:2)
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Par for the course for religion (Score:2)
People have used their religious beliefs forever in order to justify their behavior.
Religious beliefs is what allows otherwise normal people to commit all sorts of crimes while feeling virtuous about doing so.
Alexandra Petri reported on this better (Score:2)
Shareable link [wapo.st].
Opening line:
Huge news: God spoke! And the first thing God said was, “Use other people’s money to pay for your home remodel, Colorado pastor Eli Regalado!”
God, as a co-conspirator (Score:2)
...will go to prison?
Why am I not surprised? (Score:2)
He addes one con on top of the one he'd been working.
2 Peter 2:1 (Score:2)
"False Teachers Will Arise. Just as there were false prophets who arose among the people, so there will be false teachers among you. They will introduce their disruptive views and even deny the very Master who redeemed them, thus bringing swift destruction on themselves."
1 Timothy 6:10 (Score:2)
"The love of money is the root of all evils, and in their desire for it some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many serious wounds."
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So it is all about the altar boys then? Makes sense to me.
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Until you get to the level of Bishop, especially of an urban diocese. Those guys live in mansions and have cooks and chauffeurs and **expensive** wines. Cardinals live in palaces. Their bank accounts might not be fat, but they don't need to be.
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So they're really just in for the kiddy diddling?
Talk about a one-track mind...
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Beats passing around the collection plate after every hymn.
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Satanists are still religious fuckups. They may not even have a worse selection of fake deity to pray to than the other theists. The whole thing is a clusterfuck of stupid. Oh, and there are not many satanists around in the first place, unless you count torturers, (child-)rapists, fraudsters, liars, (mass-)murderers, etc. that claim to pray to the "true" God.
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There are some that are similar to the followers of the Great Spaghetti Monster.
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Satan? I already don't give a fuck about god, why would I care about his head of marketing?