An American priest, Lawrence Kozak, is accused by police of spending a significant amount of money on several popular mobile games, squandering the funds of the Saint Thomas More Parish…

A Catholic priest in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, is accused by police of spending more than $40,000 on mobile games on the parish’s account. Candy Crush, Mario Kart Tour, Pokémon Go, Cash Frenzy, a few slot machines and hidden object titles… it’s quite a list.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Lawrence Kozak dabbled with the diocese’s credit card, and the total accumulated over four years and amounted to $41,879.83 in spending. The purchases began in 2019. Authorities were first notified of the case by church officials in 2022. At that time, police interviewed Kozak, who told investigators that he had linked his personal and parish credit cards to his iPhone. The latter he said he used for “streaming” (e.g. Netflix) and “Microsoft Office”. The latter statement makes us suspect that he is lying!

According to him, he did not directly use the parish credit card for the microtransactions, but this could have been unintentional as he is not a “detail guy” and usually only looked at the final amount before paying. According to him, the purchases were for “powering up,” not gambling. Among the police documents is a spreadsheet linked to Kozak’s Apple ID that shows ALL purchases between December 30, 2018 and June 15, 2022. The total is $214,265.08, and includes some unusual transactions that show up in the church’s financial records, and also shows that Kozak also charged his own account to his credit card, for a total of $10,600 (if he had covered the entire amount, there would be no problem…).

But they also found an Amazon account where he used parish money to buy a Fire tablet, and a backpack sent to Kozak’s goddaughter with messages signed “Uncle Larry.” In 2023, his successor, Thomas Kletzel, told police he received an $8,000 check from Kozak to give back to the parish, and in his handwritten letter apologized for the stress it had caused everyone. Also last year, the parish’s business manager said he was skeptical that Kozak didn’t know whose money he was spending.

On Thursday, Kozak was charged with theft and other related offenses and has since been released on $250,000 bail. Kozak told police he needs counseling for his gambling addiction. But it may be too late.

Source: PCGamer, The Philadelphi Inquirer, Catholic News Agency