There have been loads of church scandals over the a long time, however this is likely to be the very first one which entails Candy Crush. By way of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Reverend Lawrence Kozak was arrested in Pottstown, Pennsylvania on April 25 and charged with stealing over $40,000 in funds from his former parish, St. Thomas Extra Church. In keeping with the report, Kozak’s vice of selection was cellular gaming, particularly Candy Crush and Mario Kart.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia eliminated Kozak from his parish in November 2022 after an inner investigation decided that he spent “an astronomical quantity of Apple transactions” on the church’s bank card. The fees span from September 2019 to July 2022. Kozak can also be mentioned to have used church funds to purchase items for his goddaughter.
Kozak reportedly advised investigators in 2022 that the cash was used to “energy up” and provides him a bonus whereas enjoying his cellular video games. Kozak added that he was “in search of counseling for his habit,” and he denied deliberately utilizing church funds for his video games. As an alternative, Kozak says that the fees to the church’s bank cards occurred as a result of they had been already linked to his cellular phone.
The Philadelphia Inquirer states that monetary data present that Kozak repaid $10,000 to the parish bank card account from his private funds. The story additionally says that Kozak mailed an $8,000 examine to his former parish after he had been faraway from his submit. Together with the examine, Kozak wrote a be aware of apology to his successor at St. Thomas Extra, and he talked about his makes an attempt to repay the church.
Kozak is presently free on bail, and his lawyer advised The Philadelphia Inquirer that “he was reviewing the fees and deliberate to contact prosecutors in regards to the case within the coming days.”