--- title: Gamer Blew $1 Million on "Game of War," Stolen from Employer description: The California man fraudulently stole nearly $5 million from his workplace, of which he spent $1 million on the popular mobile game. canonical: https://time.com/4598024/game-of-war-stolen-money/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-12T19:23:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:39:24.045Z og:title: Man Says He Blew $1 Million of His Employer's Money on Game of War og:description: A California man has pled guilty after spending $1 million on the mobile game. og:url: https://time.com/4598024/game-of-war-stolen-money/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Says He Blew $1 Million of His Employer's Money on Game of War twitter:description: A California man has pled guilty after spending $1 million on the mobile game. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Man Spent $1 Million of His Employer's Money on a Mobile Game  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 12, 2016 7:23 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 12, 2016 7:23 PM UTC Mobile gaming can rack up quite the hefty fee. Just ask a California man who recently pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, to the tune of nearly $5 million, of which he says he spent about $1 million on “Game of War” according to [the court documents shared by ArsTechnica.](http://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/gameofwar.pdf) Kevin Lee Co says he took the sum was taken from his employer, a heavy-equipment company, over the space of about six years as Co held down a role in the company’s accounting department. He reportedly engaged in a scheme to falsify expenditures on plastic surgery, luxury cars, and sports tickets. As for Game of War? It’s a mobile app that you can download for free. But it’s also ranked number two in top-grossing games of 2016, according to [Think Gaming](https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/3352/game-of-war-fire-age/). That’s because to “win” at the popular game—with its high-profile ads starring model Kate Upton—users will spend large amounts to speed up the process of building cities and training virtual troops. Without shelling out, some users might find themselves surpassed by paying players. ([VentureBeat says](http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/01/game-of-wars-paying-players-spent-an-average-of-550-on-its-in-app-purchases-in-2015/) the average user ponied up $550 on the game in 2015.) But Co appeared to go above and beyond, ultimately shelling out a cool million. He potentially faces up to 20 years in prison. \[[KansasCityStar](http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article120287233.html) / [ArsTechnica](http://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/gameofwar.pdf)\] Gamer Blew $1 Million on "Game of War," Stolen from Employer ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4598024/game-of-war-stolen-money/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4598024/game-of-war-stolen-money/"},"headline":"This Man Spent $1 Million of His Employer's Money on a Mobile Game","datePublished":"2016-12-12T19:23:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:39:24.045Z","description":"Gaming can get expensive","url":"https://time.com/4598024/game-of-war-stolen-money/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4598024/game-of-war-stolen-money/","name":"This Man Spent $1 Million of His Employer's Money on a Mobile Game"}}]}] ```