Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Spending $145k in Company Funds on Pokémon Cards

On August 15, Gross was sentenced to four months in federal prison for committing wire fraud, as reported by KTIV. Court documents show that from September 2021 to October 2022, Gross racked up a whopping $146,590.15 in purchases on the dime of his employer, Ruan Transportation Company. The shopping spree included Pokémon cards, gaming items, and prepaid gift cards. Gross did this by falsifying receipts on expense reports to make the purchases appear legit.

Following an investigation by the FBI and Des Moines Police Department, Gross has been ordered to repay the $146k in restitution in addition to his federal sentence (for which there is no parole). Once he has completed his time in prison, he will have to serve a three-year term of supervised release.

Unfortunately, there are no further details on the nature of his purchases. What generation was he partial to? Were the prepaid gift cards used to purchase even more Pokémon cards? Did he use one of those weird Pokémon vending machines they have at grocery stores now? What, exactly, is a “gaming item”? It goes without saying that these questions will haunt us forever.

At the same time, trading card games are by design bottomless pits for money to get sucked into. It’s a huge barrier to entry for someone like me who wants to know what all the Magic: The Gathering fuss is about, and can also lead some very specific players into situations like this one, apparently. TCGs, gacha games, and blind boxes are undeniably predatory, despite their artistic and cultural value. Should something be done about them? Do they deserve to be regulated, or are they merely a symptom of a greater economic problem? I don’t know. I like my Peach Riot figures, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want more.