But Sister Mary said that she was extremely remorseful and humbled. Most of the money came from school fundraisers; some came from a tuition hike. Despite taking a vow of poverty, an 80-year-old nun was sentenced on Monday for stealing more than $800,000 to pay for personal expenses, including gambling trips. Instead, the school's principal, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was stealing the money and using it to bankroll her gambling habit, federal prosecutors said, violating her vow of. The statement also condemned the embezzlement, saying, we will not defend the actions of our Sisters. The archdiocese of Los Angeles told parents about the suspected embezzlement in a meeting on Monday evening. Most of the funds she blew on gambling trips to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe with . To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. Looking back, though, wasnt it a little strange that Sister Mary Margaret was always organizing poker nights at the school for charity, and that she always made the final table? Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, who belong to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, are suspected of embezzling a "substantial" amount of money from a Catholic school in. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering after she admitted to investigators that she embezzled hundreds of thousands of. The employees then reported Kreuper to the monsignor of the parish, Kumar said. Bank records show Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang had been embezzling funds from St. James Catholic School in Torrance for at least a decade, the Press-Telegram reported.. Police have been informed but the Archdiocese does not intend to pursue criminal proceedings against the sisters. What are the details? Margaret Mary Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang were accused of embezzling tuition, fees, and donations made in favor of St. James Catholic School to fund their gambling trips (Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet) Kreuper is also accused of directing St. James School employees to alter and destroy financial records during a school audit. At the time of Flynns reporting, St. James School estimated the two women embezzled around $500,000. https://t.co/fsUwStYj3J. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a110852986c4083 "The church tells us to forgive those who have trespassed against us," Kearns said. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper has agreed to plead guilty to charges that she embezzled the money while she was the principal at a Catholic school in Torrance, Calif., prosecutors said. That order has also paid for Kreupers living expenses for multiple decades. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to one year and one day for fraud and money laundering charges. When Mary Margaret Bartock was born about 1938, her father, Steve, was 39, and her mother, Elizabeth, was 29. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, who was principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, used the school funds to . Of course! Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Thanks for contacting us. She was rumbled in June 2018, just as she was about to retire after 28 years as principal, when an internal audit blew the lid off the racket. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admitted embezzling $835,000 from St James Catholic School in the LA suburb of Torrance. The 80-year-old nun also was ordered to pay a total of $825,338.57 in restitution for the money she embezzled while she was a principal at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, Calif. She also managed several of the schools bank accounts, including one that had been set up to pay the living expenses of the other nuns who worked there. LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) Mary Margaret Kreuper, a now-retired nun who was the principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, has agreed to plead guilty to fraud and money laundering charges. They added that she has been suffering from a mental illness that clouded her judgment and caused her to do something that she otherwise would not have done., They said Sister Mary Margaret became a nun when she was 18, and for the next 59 years she dedicated her life to helping others and educating children in Archdiocesan schools.. Alexander also pointed out that the two nuns had routinely lied to parents at the school about how they were paying for their vacations and their gambling trips. The fraud came to light after the accused, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang . Our Sisters take full responsibility for the choices they made and are subject to the law., The order said that they were imposing their own kind of punishment on Kreuper and on Chang: Canonical Restrictions have been imposed. Church officials said that both Kreuper and Chang confessed to taking the money, and expressed remorse, asking for forgiveness and prayers. As it stands, the Los Angeles Archdiocese said it was shocked and saddened.. ", The judge advised Kreuper that he expected her to make a statement at sentencing, adding, "I don't have to worry about (lies) coming from you.". She confessed after the diocese hired an ex-FBI agent to grill staff members at the school. Kreuper acknowledged that for a period of 10 years ending in September 2018, she embezzled $835,339 from St. James Catholic School. After reading about the retired nun who stole over $800,000 to support her gambling habit, learn about the dead priest whose DNA could help solve a nuns decades-old murder. We were an ATM, and people know it and they wont ask for justice, Jack Alexander, a father at the school, said. Thats why it came as a shock to many when the two sisters were accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the schools funds and using it to gamble in Las Vegas. Substantial amount of school funds for their personal use.https://t.co/nIiuz3JiDR, Dalton (@DaltonReport) December 1, 2018. She said that she diverted school funds into the St. James convent account and then into its federal credit union savings account. Gambling Nun Who Embezzled $800,000+ of School Funds Gets Off Lightly With 366-Day Jail Sentence Judge Wright II sentenced Kreuper to one year and a day in a federal prison She must also pay $825,338.57 in restitution for the money she embezzled Kreuper admitted using the school funds to pay for "large gambling expenses" "I apologize for the public scandal, the embarrassment and the financial burden that I have placed on the sisters in my religious community, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, St. James School, the parishioners, parents and students who placed their trust in me," she said. There have been calls among some parents for the pair to be charged while others said they should be forgiven. A federal judge sentenced Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, a nun and former Catholic school principal, to a year in prison for embezzling more than $835,000 from the school she ran to fund a more secular lifestyle including gambling trips. A subsequent financial review found that a substantial amount of school funds had been misappropriated for personal use by Sister Mary Margaret, with the Torrance Police Department expanding its investigation into the matter in December 2018. She ran the institution on a shoestring while plundering an account containing tuition fees and charitable donations over a period of ten years. We continue to offer our prayers for all impacted by this matter.. Two nuns in California allegedly stole more than $500,000 from the school they had been at for years, which they spent in casinos and on vacations. The nuns apparently told everyone that a rich uncle was paying for their trips. This lulled St. James School and the Administration into believing that the schools finances were being properly accounted for and its financial assets properly safeguarded, which, in turn, allowed defendant Kreuper to maintain her access and control of the schools finances and accounts and, thus, continue operating the fraudulent scheme, according to the DOJ. Los Angeles Archdiocese of Los Angeles Gambling nuns nuns Las Vegas Saint James Catholic School . Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? The two embezzling sisters are Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang. In total, it is believed she stole $835,339 at least that authorities are currently aware of. Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesSister Mary Kreuper served as the principal at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, for 28 years. Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was charged Tuesday with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of California. Eventually, a forensic accountant discovered that there was a half-million dollars missing from the schools accounts. Mary Margaret Kreuper, a nun who admitted stealing more than $800,000 from St. James Catholic School in Torrance when she was its principal, spent some of the money on trips to Las Vegas and. Kreuper pleaded guilty to the charges in July and also admitted she falsified monthly and annual reports to the school administration, and told employees to cover up her fraudulent conduct. In addition to stealing $835,339, she falsified monthly and annual reports, and instructed employees to alter and destroy financial records during a school audit. This was really an abuse of position of trust, right, Kumar said. But somewhere along the line, you just ran completely off the road, and I think you understand that. . We do know that they had a pattern of going on trips. "The Sisters of St. Joseph both desire and intend to make complete restitution to St. James School," the Daily Breeze reported. But not all the parishioners were as understanding. Principal, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, and teacher Sister Lana Chang. She confessed to causing losses to St. James Catholic School totaling $835,339 over the course of the scheme, the statement said. The lawyers added that she has been suffering from a mental illness that clouded her judgment and is very remorseful.. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to one year and one day for fraud and money laundering charges. One man, whose children attend St James, grumbled that the nuns had been using the school as if it was their own private ATM. "These nuns took a vow of poverty and said, 'Oh no, we've got a rich uncle'. 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