She ran the institution on a shoestring while plundering an account containing tuition fees and charitable donations over a period of ten years. According to documents accompanying the plea agreement, Sister Mary Margaret diverted school funds into the schools convent account and its federal credit union savings account, and then used the money for expenses that the order would not have approved, much less paid for, including large gambling expenses at casinos in Nevada and credit card charges. LOS ANGELES, CA The retired principal of a Catholic elementary school in Torrance, who as a nun took a vow of poverty, was sentenced Monday to 12 months and a day behind bars for embezzling more than $835,000 in school funds to support a gambling habit and other personal expenses. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang of St.James Catholic School caught embezzling $500K for personal use, including gambling as church declines to press charges. We continue to offer our prayers for all impacted by this matter.. 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. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. The two embezzling sisters are Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang. Ultimately Kreuper admitted to stealing over $835,000. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, who took a vow of poverty, begged a judge to show her mercy and spare her prison, saying: "I have sinned, I've broken the law and I have no excuses." Of course! . Performance & security by Cloudflare. They were able to get away with it because the school was doing so well, financially, that nobody ever missed the money. He was unhappy with the churchs decision not to prosecute. A Los Angeles nun jailed for stealing more than $800,000 to fund a gambling habit has admitted "I have sinned". They were angry that their children had been denied new facilities at the school because of Kreupers transgressions. The Essential Michelle Yeoh Viewing Guide, Donna Kelce Tells Us the Story Behind Her Half-Eagles, Half-Chiefs Jersey, Sex Lives: A Guy Who Draws the Line at Married Men. We do know that they had a pattern of going on trips. Kumar said Kreuper was able to dodge detection for so many years because she would divert tuition checks and other funds to two old bank accounts that other school administrators were not aware were still being used. The archdiocese and St. James Parish and School are grateful to local and federal law enforcement agencies for their work in the investigation of this matter. She had reportedly worked there for 20 years before both retired in 2018, shortly before their scandal was revealed. Byrne said the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet already imposed some severe and onerous restrictions on Kreuper. Diverting embezzled funds into secret accounts, Kreuper used the money "to pay for expenses that the order would not have approved, much less paid for," including large gambling expenses and trips to Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Temecula, according to her plea agreement. But officials from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles told parents and alumni of the school that auditors have not been able to trace all of the money trail. 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.. Officials in the archdiocese of Los Angeles told parents that they had proof that a Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from the St James Catholic School in Torrance. Kevin Kearns, who enrolled his son in kindergarten in 2011, says he has used this as a teachable moment and asked for leniency for Kreuper, the LA Times reported. Police said they were still carrying out their own investigation. But in fact, the sisters were only depositing some of the checks that came in. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesSister Mary Kreuper served as the principal at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, for 28 years. 178.79.131.117 Principal, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, and teacher Sister Lana Chang. Playing at online casino for real money can be a thrilling experience! Basically, for the last three and a half years, shes been driving her fellow sisters to doctors appointments and things like that. An 80-year-old nun who gambled away more than $835,000 in school funds was sentenced to twelve months and a day in federal prison Monday, according to a press release from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Parents said the two nuns were big on moral fortitude . A Los Angeles nun jailed for stealing more than $800,000 to fund a gambling habit has admitted "I have sinned". A. The World's Online Gaming Authority Since 1995, Gambling Nuns Embezzled $500,000 from California School, Blew it On Casino Junkets, Gambling Nun Gets One Year in Prison for Stealing $835k from L.A. Two nuns from California stole funds from the Catholic school they were at and spent in on vacations and gambling. Kreuper, who was the principal of the school for 28 years, agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors, the release said. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology. Kreuper used her position to funnel $835,339 of the schools funds to pay for expenses that the order would not have approved, much less paid for, including large gambling expenses incurred at casinos and certain credit card charges, according to the plea agreement. Its unclear what will happen to Chang, or whether shes even involved in any ongoing investigation. The 80-year-old nun also was ordered to pay a total of. Kreuper's attorney Mark Byrne explained that his client, who retired in 2018, has been under strict supervision at her convent. She further admitted "lulling St. James School and the administration into believing that the school's finances were being properly accounted for and its financial assets properly safeguarded," which allowed her to maintain access to the school's finances. Substantial amount of school funds for their personal use.https://t.co/nIiuz3JiDR, Dalton (@DaltonReport) December 1, 2018. But the Catholic church is glad to have a scandal that doesn't involve boy-rape, so they've got that going for them. Besides, both the nuns in question were in positions of trust. As principal -- a position she had for nearly 30 years before she retired -- Kreuper was responsible for the money the school received to pay for tuition and fees, as well as for charitable donations, according to documents filed in Los Angeles federal court. One of the things she said when she was first confronted by the LA Archdiocese and even before law enforcement got involved was she did it in part because she believes priests get paid better than nuns, Kumar told The Post. Bobby Kent And The Murder That Inspired The Cult Classic Film "Bully", What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images. The statement pledged that the order would work with the diocese to discover the full amount that had been taken from the school; they pledged to restore all of the money that was stolen. It was then that Kreuper started to get nervous and told two employees to destroy documents and directed them to not mention to the auditors that certain documents were missing. 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. He added that an expert report explained she had a gambling addiction. Sister Mary Margaret Gambling. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was charged Tuesday with wire fraud and money laundering for ripping off St. James Catholic School for a period of 10 years ending in September 2018, according to a press release from the US Attorneys Office in the Central District of California. The rich uncle was the parents of the St. James students.. They noted that a lay person in the same situation could expect a lengthy prison sentence. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Oh boy, the flying nun really did it this time. At least I hope you do.. Kreuper even took fellow nuns on some of those excursions and spent thousands of the elementary schools money, Kumar said. Meanwhile, she would falsify monthly and annual reports to cover up her conduct. Chang was a teacher for 20 years before being promoted to vice principal. 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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. The disgraced nun stole hundreds of thousands of . "I have sinned, I have broken the law, and I have no excuses," Kreuper told U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II, Los Angeles Times reported. The attorney said the nuns had spent the money on gambling trips and on vacations. She broke the law, she has no excuses for it and she took full responsibility.. "At our school, we have initiated additional procedures and oversight policies for financial management and reporting responsibilities," Meyers wrote. We've received your submission. To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com. Prosecutors asked for a sentence of two years, but US District Judge Otis D. Wright II said during Mondays sentencing that he also struggled to find the proper sentence for the nun, and even said she was one heck of a teacher., You can be proud of that, Wright said, according to the LA Times. The offices of the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California revealed that she had used funds raised for the school for personal expenses as well as gambling. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, who was principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, used the school funds to . But many parents were furious when they discovered the diocese had decided not to press charges against Kreuper because she had shown remorse.. She was running the school that these parents had chosen to send their children [to], and not just for the academics. Scott Varley/Torrance Daily Breeze, via Getty Images. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admits to stealing over $835k from a Catholic School. 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