By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Thursday, November 06, 2025

Online Pastor Eligio "Eli" Regalado, who was recently ordered to repay nearly $3.4 million in restitution for selling some $3.2 million in worthless cryptocurrency to his Christian followers, previously served time in prison for auto theft, according to court records. His ex-wife alleges that he has been a known "con man" for a while.

"He's a snake oil salesman," Nicole Brown, Regalado's ex-wife, told CBS News, "but it's all for his own gain. Eli is a con man and I feel for anyone who has been conned of their money in this crypto scheme. I hope he goes to prison for a very long time." 

In September, a Denver judge ordered Regalado and his current wife, Kaitlyn, to pay restitution to their victims in response to a civil lawsuit that claimed the couple and INDXcoin LLC committed securities fraud in violation of the Colorado Securities Act.

They are still also facing 40 counts of fraud in a separate criminal case filed in July. The couple, who claim they were being led by God, also splurged at least $1.3 million of investor funds on a Range Rover, jewelry, luxury handbags, cosmetic dentistry, boat rentals, snowmobile adventures, home renovations, and an au pair.

State criminal records cited by CBS News show Regalado pleading guilty to theft in Jefferson County in 2000. He pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in connection with a 2001 incident. In 2004, he pleaded guilty to a DUI and was arrested in 1999 for aggravated motor vehicle theft, for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

"I found it astonishing that people would give him tens of thousands of dollars for this (crypto) thing, but knowing who he is and how he could spin things, it almost made sense in the worst way," Brown said.

Responding to the news about his past, Regalado declined to make any comment to CBS News except, "Our God whom we serve will deliver us."

Brown, who was married to Regalado from 2017 through 2020, says she, too, was conned by him and claims she was coerced into getting married. She said she was just 23 when she met him, and he was 37.

"He told me, 'If you don't marry me, you don't love me.' So I felt manipulated," the 32-year-old Denver woman said. 

Brown told CBS News that she only found out about Regalado’s criminal background before she left him and got a divorce.

"He told me he had been to prison twice, once for stealing cars. He told me he would dress up as a valet and steal cars that way. And racketeering, also making fake licenses for people,” Brown said.

Brown said Regalado was never religious when they got married and she suggests he used religion to leverage his background in marketing startups as a way to “get rich quick.”

"He just thought, I'm going to pivot and now I'm going to believe in God and I'll find a new audience to preach to and get their money,” she said.

“He was all about get rich quick — he wanted to take people's money and sell them lies and then he would profit off it," Brown said

He began "speaking in tongues" and said "God was talking to him,” she recalled. "It was just like he went mad.”