Priest arrested for utilizing $40,000 of parish funds on cellular video games, together with Sweet Crush and Mario Kart
WTF?! Cellular video games are recognized for his or her addictive nature, one thing that may lead individuals to spend some huge cash on them. Take the instance of the Catholic priest who was not too long ago arrested and charged with stealing over $40,000 from his former parish and spending it on the likes of Sweet Crush and Mario Kart.
Reverend Lawrence Kozak, 51, was charged with theft and different associated crimes for allegedly utilizing a church bank card to spend $41,879.83 on cellular video games between September 2019 and July 2022, reviews The Philadelphia Inquirer (by way of Kotaku).
Investigators say the spending got here to mild in 2022 when an accountant working on the Pottstown, Pennsylvania, church found “an astronomical quantity of Apple transactions” on the parish’s bank card statements throughout a monetary overview. The Apple ID was allegedly registered to Kozak. Church funds had additionally been used to purchase objects utilizing an Amazon account registered to Kozak, together with a Fireplace pill and a baby’s backpack for his goddaughter.
Kozak denied knowingly utilizing the parish bank card when he was introduced in to talk to police after the fees had been found, claiming that each his private financial institution card and the parish bank card had been linked to his iPhone. He stated the church card was used for approved streaming companies and Microsoft Workplace software program, however admitted that he could have used it to purchase sport objects as a result of he was not “a particulars man.” He added that the purchases had been for “powering up” slightly than playing, and that he was searching for counseling for his habit to taking part in and spending cash on on-line video games, in accordance with the affidavit.
Kozak’s video games of selection had been Sweet Crush, Mario Kart Tour, Pokémon Go, and Money Frenzy, in addition to numerous slot machine and hidden object video games. Data present that he really made funds totaling $10,600 from a private checking account towards the church’s bank card steadiness.
Kozak was positioned on administrative go away by the church in November 2022. His substitute at Saint Thomas Extra Parish instructed police in 2023 that he obtained a letter from Kozak containing a cheque for $8,000 for “Parish reimbursement.” The handwritten letter learn: “I’m so sorry that I made this error which has been any supply of stress for you.”
Kozak was charged final Thursday and has since been launched after posting $250,000 bail.
Numerous instances during which obscene quantities of cash have been poured into cellular video games contain youngsters spending their mother and father’ money. A 13-year-old spent $64,000 on pay-to-win cellular titles in China final yr. There was additionally the case of an 11-year-old who spent nearly £6,000 (round $7,465) on in-app purchases over the course of simply two weekends in 2017. And in 2020, a dad found his daughter, additionally 11, spent $6,000 on Roblox, claiming she thought it was Monopoly cash.
