This time around, as Eli tells it, his public defender warned him that it was \u201clegally impossible\u201d that he\u2019d be released early again. But he heard a voice in his head repeating, \u201cI\u2019m going to give you probation.\u201d And then it happened: A judge suspended his sentence. The incident became core to his worldview: \u201cIt first has to \u2026 look completely impossible,\u201d he says, \u201cand then that\u2019s when God resurrects it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After he got out of prison, Eli\u2019s religious zeal didn\u2019t stick. He threw himself into a worldly goal: making money. \u201cI just need to put on this success mask,\u201d he recalls thinking, \u201cso that people would see me as valuable.\u201d He marked \u201cno\u201d when asked about felony convictions on job applications and eventually discovered that he had an aptitude for sales. He hawked everything from vacuums to leads for contractors, before pivoting to marketing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2010, Icosa Magazine<\/em>, a Denver-based publication, brought Eli on as a consultant. \u201cHe is the most charismatic bullshitter I have ever met in my life,\u201d says Jan Mazotti, who was editor-in-chief at the time. She recalls Eli telling her that Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk\u2019s brother, had offered to let the magazine host events at his restaurant. \u201cI called up there, and they were like, \u2018I have no idea what you\u2019re talking about.\u2019\u201d (Eli doesn\u2019t recall the incident.)<\/p>\n In 2013, Eli launched Mad Hatter Agency, a marketing firm specializing in crowdfunding campaigns. Nikko Lobato, an early employee, observed that Eli got a rush from selling that reminded him of Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s character in the film The Wolf of Wall Street<\/em>. Eli accepted so many projects, Lobato says, that he sometimes ended up \u201coverpromising and underdelivering.\u201d Four clients I contacted were satisfied; three were not, including one who ended his contract \u201cdue to poor performance.\u201d Mike Stemple, an entrepreneur and author, told me that Eli volunteered to help him market a course but never did. (Eli says they had a \u201cpersonality conflict.\u201d) \u201cMy hope, Eli,\u201d Stemple wrote in an email, \u201cis that you understand that your gift to be able to sell anything to anyone \u2026 can easily be destructive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n MATT NAGER<\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Eli\u2019s personal life was chaotic. \u201cI was always in and out of relationships,\u201d he says. \u201cI was drinking, partying, doing drugs.\u201d He blames his professional missteps on cocaine use and a \u201cnervous breakdown.\u201d He told me that by 2018, as he approached 40, he felt \u201cscared of not becoming somebody\u201d and contemplated suicide. Eli was coming off a three-day cocaine bender when his mother gave him a book called The Power of Right Believing<\/em> by Singaporean pastor Joseph Prince. It moved him deeply. He began delving into charismatic Christianity, a movement that emphasizes a strong personal relationship with God, including prophecy, healing, and speaking in tongues.\u00a0<\/p>\n Heeding divine direction, Eli says he quit drugs and hired nearly a dozen friends and relatives to work at his marketing agency, which he renamed Grace Led Marketing. He also started leading daily Bible study with employees and preaching at weekly gatherings in his living room. In 2020, he formed a church called Victorious Grace and began broadcasting sermons on Facebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n That summer, Eli met Kaitlyn at a party. Thirteen years his junior, Kaitlyn was slender and soft-spoken, with straight dark hair and a gleaming smile. Immediately, she told me, \u201cI just trusted the man with my life.\u201d On their first date, Kaitlyn was \u201csaved\u201d over dinner. Within four months, they wed and bought a house in Denver, and Kaitlyn began running operations at Grace Led Marketing.\u00a0<\/p>\n By the end of 2020, however, the newlyweds\u2019 income had begun to nosedive. Crowdfunding campaigns were underperforming and clients were paying late, they say. Eli owed over $160,000 in unpaid taxes. \u201cI feel like a failure,\u201d he recalls thinking.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n #God #told #sell #crypto #investors #lost<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This time around, as Eli tells it, his public defender warned him that it was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2247,5095,126,870,1743,447],"class_list":["post-21680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-crypto","tag-god","tag-investors","tag-lost","tag-sell","tag-told"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Regalados_DSF7279-crop.jpg",1200,600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Regalados_DSF7279-crop-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Regalados_DSF7279-crop-300x150.jpg",300,150,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Regalados_DSF7279-crop-768x384.jpg",640,320,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Regalados_DSF7279-crop-1024x512.jpg",640,320,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Regalados_DSF7279-crop.jpg",1200,600,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Regalados_DSF7279-crop.jpg",1200,600,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Regalados_DSF7279-crop-1024x512.jpg",1024,512,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Regalados_DSF7279-crop-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.technologyreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Eli_DSF7416.jpg\")