The Pastor, His INDXcoin Token And An Offer Too Good To Be True (So Help Me God)

A Colorado pastor has landed himself in hot water following admittance to his alleged involvement in a crypto Ponzi scheme with sham token, INDXcoin.

Doing God’s work?

Last week, a Denver-based Internet pastor and his wife had charges placed against them for allegedly operating a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme involving the True Index Cryptocurrency (INDXcoin) token and the Kingdom Wealth Exchange (KWE), both of which they are the founders of.

As per the official press release, Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan filed charges against Reverand Eli Regaldo and Kaitlyn Regaldo for violation “of the anti-fraud, licensing and registration provisions” of the state’s securities laws and regulations.

According to the complaint filed, INDXcoin raised $3.2million from over 300 investors between June 2022 and April 2023. It claims that the pair used their religion, their position in the community, and their influence, to target Christian communities in Denver.

Local news outlet, The Denver Post, provided evidence to these allegations, reporting that the pastor spoke to his online followers on 22 August 2022, stating: “It was last October that the Lord brought this cryptocurrency to me. He said, ‘Take this to my people for a wealth transfer.’ It has been confirmed a hundred times since."

He goes on to describe his divine mission to bring wealth to his people, adding: “Just take that word as gospel truth and execute on that word and do not worry about how the money’s going to happen. I really believe you’re going to see a miracle in very short order.”

Crypto confessions

A day later, Rev. Regaldo took to the INDXcoin website to address the allegations, coming clean in a video where he describes the charges and the situation.

He notes that the state declares his crypto worthless due to there being “no exit for people who have bought”. He goes on to note that people who wanted to withdraw couldn’t, so they built KWE and the “exchange technology failed”, after which they waited for "a miracle".

He admits that the allegation of them pocketing $1.3m is true, “half a million dollars went to the IRS” he notes, and a “few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel,” he clarifies, “that the lord told us to do”.

This is more or less the gist of his confession. In short, this was all the lord’s work. 

A supercut can be found

An online pastor was charged in CO for a $1.3 million crypto scam. He's released a 9-minute-long video explaining that the Lord told him to sell a cryptocurrency with no clear exit", and spend some of the proceeds on "a home remodel the Lord told us to do".

Here's a supercut. pic.twitter.com/scKpF8nyrT

— Molly White (@molly0xFFF) January 21, 2024

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The reverend wraps the video by reminding viewers that God told them to do this, “God is not done with this project, God is not done with INDXcoin.”

A convincing presentation

This is a crypto tale as old as time. An individual with influence looks at crypto and sees an opportunity. 

INDXcoin, according to its rather comprehensive whitepaper: “INDXcoin is an index-based cryptocurrency that tracks and indexes the value of the top one hundred cryptocurrencies (ranked by market cap) through an AI-based data procurement mechanism sourced from multiple data points to ensure accuracy.”

Of all the allegedly fraudulent crypto projects that have happened in recent years, this one is relatively well put together, albeit lacking in any technical information surrounding protocols, networks, or simple tokenomics. But it has been a decent enough presentation to trick a few million from 300 people. 

Scam alert – have we learned anything?

Like many others that came before it, INDXcoin was able to achieve what it did thanks to the influence of pastor Regaldo over his trusting community. Unfortunately, there will always be opportunists who can abuse their position when they have hundreds of loyal followers, and crypto creates a unique opportunity for them to do so. 

To avoid scams and rug pulls, here are a few golden rules when contemplating a crypto project to invest in:

• If it is being heavily promoted by people of influence, approach it with caution.
• If there is no detailed information about how the token works (tokenomics), run.
• If there is any mention of a ‘higher power’ being involved, inform the authorities.