A Catholic priest of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, was accused of using his church credit card to spend more than $40,000 on power-ups, aka microtransactions, of Mario Kart Tour And Candy Crush. The amount would not have been spent all at once, but over three years.
Shoppone priest
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the news, with an article that went into detail about what happened, largely confirmed by the priest himself. Author of theft, this is the accusation made against him and for which he was arrested, he would have been the 51 year old Reverend Lawrence Kozak. The man was released on bail after paying $250,000.
According to the investigation, an accountant working at the Kozak church discovered in 2022 a huge amount of transactions on the church’s credit card, made inApp Store of Apple. The purchases began in September 2019, shortly after Reverend Kozak’s arrival in the parish, and ended in July 2022.
According to what was found, theApple ID of the transactions would be that of Kozak. Investigators also discovered purchases made for the man’s goddaughter, such as a Fire Tablet, carried out via an Amazon account, always in his name. The tablet itself was particularly revealing, because the gift card was signed “Uncle Larry.”
Other documents showed that at one point Kozak had also used his personal bank account to pay off the church’s $10,000 credit card bill.
When questioned by investigators in 2022, the priest explained that he was looking for help to fight his mobile game addiction. He said he didn’t spend the money on gambling, but on upgrades for different games, so he could have some advantages. He then denied intentionally using the church’s credit card, which he said was only linked to his account to pay church bills. He, of course, did not deny accidentally using church funds in microtransactions.
Be that as it may, Kozak was removed from his role in November 2022, after an internal investigation that exposed his addiction and use of parish funds. After the removal, he sent a check of $8,000 to the new priest as reimbursement, apologizing for his mistakes and stating that he wanted to pay off his debt in full.
