She really didnt stay true to it at all, actually. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, a former principal at St James Catholic School in Torrance, California, used tuition fees and donations to subsidize casino gambling expenses and credit card payments, the authorities said. They and their Order pray that you have not lost trust or faith in the educators and administrators of the school. 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.". Sister Lana Chang, a vice principal who was initially implicated in the scheme, was not charged. The embezzlement helped to fuel her gambling habit. It involves two fifth-grade teachers at Catholic schools in California. Ultimately, "they are not people we understand to be spiritual leaders of the church.". Her husband, Darryl Biel, remembers that day vividly. Many parents were outraged with the initial decision not to press charges, with some remarking that if the nuns were lay people, they would certainly be in jail according to the presstelegram. The 80-year-old nun also was ordered to pay a total of. The Archdiocese appears to have now changed course-with ABC Newsreporting a criminal case may now be in the works following deepening investigations. In June 2021, several local, national, and international news outlets reported that a nun in California had admitted, and was preparing to plead guilty to, embezzling $835,000 from the Catholic school she ran for three decades. Apparently, the Vegas trips were common knowledge, but the nuns explained that the gambling excursions were gifts from a rich uncle. "I have sinned," Sister Mary told a US . All they needed to do was get through the school year. Yes, a Nun Has Admitted to Embezzling $835,000 from a Catholic School Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering for her role in a scheme to defraud a. The 80-year-old nun pleaded for mercy after stealing $835,339 from an elementary Catholic school to fund her gambling addiction.. In June 2021, Mary Margaret Kreuper, a Catholic nun in the Los Angeles congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. District Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, whereby she committed to pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, and admitted taking part in a 10-year scheme to defraud St. James' Catholic School, an elementary school in Torrance, California, where she had served as principal for 28 years, to the amount of $835,000. We do know they had a pattern of going to casinos, and the reality is, they used the account as their personal account, an attorney told parents and alumni at Mondays meeting. 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. These nuns took a vow of poverty and said, Oh no, weve got a rich uncle, parent Jack Alexander said. She claimed that she was fired after she told her superior, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. It's just that you have to look and see what kind of function are they doing.". 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). The two announced their retirement at the same time and were on their way out in 2018. But the court's eventual decision could reach beyond teachers, affecting the lives of millions of other employees who work for religiously affiliated institutions. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, was sentenced on Monday to 12 months and one day in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II and ordered to pay $825,338 in restitution to the St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California . Copyright 2008-2023 BroBible. Officials pointed out that Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty as a nun. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. Kreuper also admitted to falsifying monthly and annual reports to the school administration in an effort to cover up the embezzlement. She also controlled two savings accounts, one for the school and one for the nuns living expenses. A retired nun has admitted to embezzling $835,000 over 10 years from a Catholic school in California to fund her gambling habit, according to federal prosecutors. She must give up the right to control or benefit from personal property and commits herself to live interdependently within a community. 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. Kreuper did not recognize she had a gambling problem until she was accused of embezzling more than $835,000 from the school, Byrne said. "You don't want the government deciding who teaches religion we don't do that in this country that's why we have an establishment clause," says Rassbach. Image Via Scott Varley/Digital First Media/ Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images. She admitted to taking a total of $835,000 in donations from the elementary school, and faces up to 40 years in federal prison. Kreuper pleaded guilty last July. The rich uncle was the parents of the St. James students., The school monsignor has since sent out a letter in which the nuns asked that i convey to you the deep remorse they each feel for their actions and ask for your forgiveness and prayers.. She wanted more than she had.. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper used tuition fees and donations to a California Catholic school to subsidize her casino expenses. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty. We use cookies to better understand website visitors, for advertising, and to offer you a better experience. Nuns should realize that just by living their lives and living the way they do and treating people the way they do, they affect children for the rest of their lives, the judge said, according to the Los Angeles Times. But she appreciates the outpouring of support shes received from people who have decided that rather to judge her on these actions toward the end of her career and life, theyve taken her whole life into consideration.. I have sinned, Ive broken the law and I have no excuses, Kreuper said at the sentencing over Zoom. In December of that year, fraud allegations emerged against her and another nun, Sister Lana Chang, who had taught at the school. 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." She called her crimes a "violation of my vows, my commandments, the law and, above all, the sacred trust that so many had placed in me". The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet confirm that today the judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles has sentenced our Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, CSJ to one year and one day in federal prison followed by two years' supervised release. Officials said Kreuper 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.. Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana were both Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Local 10 Newsreported Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang of St.James Catholic School(both retiring earlier this year) using money from the schools funds to live a life of luxury over the last ten years. Of course, at 79, the likelihood that Sister Mary Margaret will see any jail time is relatively slim. Those reports were accurate, and we are issuing a rating of "True.". Church officials said they did not wish to press charges against the sisters, who both expressed remorse. Sister Mary Margaret was making bank (very illegally) through laundering and threw everyone off of the scent by reminding them of her vow of poverty. She betrayed the trust of people in the community, the parents, students, the archdiocese and the sisters. She claimed that the salary differential between nuns and priests meant she was owed this money, which is inconsistent with the vow of poverty she took.. A now-retired nun has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $800,000 from the St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, from 2008 to 2018, the last decade of her 28-year tenure as principal of the institution.Sister Kreuper who took a vow of poverty confessed to using the . German cardinal offers to resign over sexual abuse catastrophe, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. ", "Just as teaching science out of a fifth-grade textbook doesn't make them scientists, teaching religion for 40 minutes a day out of a workbook doesn't make them ministers," he says. She became principal at St. James Catholic School, about 20 miles outside downtown Los Angeles, in 1990. We use cookies to better understand website visitors, for advertising, and to offer you a better experience. Pic: St James Catholic School. Jon Jones Reacts To Islam Makhachev Declaring Himself The Best Fighter In The World, Shavkat Rakhmonov Reacts To ESPN/UFC Commentator Laura Sanko Thirsting Over Him In Viral Video, Jon Jones First Shirtless Pic At Heavyweight Before UFC 285 Goes Viral, Ja Morants Lawyer, Agent Threaten Legal Recourse For Defamatory Report From The Washington Post, Another Glitch In The Matrix Has Occurred As A Bird Is Filmed Motionless In Mid-Air, Bengals Exec Sends Harsh Wake-Up Call To Teams Sniffing Around Tee Higgins. It is "telling," in these cases, he says, that the "teachers did not even have to be Catholic to have these jobs.". The rich uncle was the parents of the St. James students.. James Convent instead of St. Kristen Biel would return to teaching elsewhere while fighting her case in court, but in June 2019, she died. As principal of St. James Catholic School, she oversaw the money the school received to pay for tuition and fees as well as charitable donations. A spokesperson with St. James did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Mary Margaret Kreuper (Image source: KTTV-TV video screenshot). We do know that they had a pattern of going on trips, we do know they had a pattern of going to casinos, and the reality is, they used the account as their personal account, Marge Graf, an attorney representing St. James, told a group of parents at a meeting in 2018. When staff members finally found the check, they realized that it was not deposited in a St. James account, but a different bank account. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79,of Los Angeles, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering on Tuesday for defraudingSt. James Catholic Schoolover a period of 10 years. Mary Margaret Kreuper of Los Angeles was sentenced to one year and a day in prison after pleading guilty in July 2021 to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, according. Her husband, Darryl Biel, remembers that day vividly. If Kreuper has no prior criminal history, under federal sentencing guidelines the sentencing range should be between 41 and 57 months (between around three-and-a-half and five years), though the court will have the final say in her punishment. Asking for the nun to be spared from prison, her lawyer Mark Byrne told the court she has been kept under "severe restrictions" at a convent by the nuns in her order. "I wanted to face them. This article was published more than1 year ago. "As soon as she was confronted she accepted full responsibility for what she had done and she has cooperated completely with law enforcement and the Archdiocese,the pair said in a joint statement. The now-retired nun (I didnt know nuns could retire) admitted to stealing about $835,000 in donations, tuition and fees. For more information about our use of cookies, our collection, use, and disclosure of personal information generally, and any rights you may have to access, delete, or opt out of the sale of your personal information, please view our, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. St. James teacher Lana Chang admitted along with Kreuper to the embezzlement in 2018, following each of their retirements earlier that year. G7 summit - Biden brings 1.2m Cadillac The Beast but will it fit down Cornwalls tiny country lanes. The scheme was uncovered during an audit after Kreuper retired in 2018. At least I hope you do.. Starting in 2008, Kreuper diverted school funds to pay for expenses that the order would not have approved, much less paid for, prosecutors say. When first confronted, Mr Kumar said, the nun claimed she "did it in part because she believes priests get paid better than nuns". Kreuper admitted embezzling about $835,000 (616,000) in donations, tuition and fee money between 2008 and 2018. When the fraudulent behavior first came to light, the order was deeply disappointed and offered to repay the lost funds only believed to be $500,000 at the time. (Shutterstock) LOS ANGELES, CA The retired principal of a Catholic . Investigators determined the money went to accounts the school didnt know about, Kumar said. But, Fisher counters, that "this isn't something you measure with a stopwatch." (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images). Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admits to stealing over $835k from a Catholic School. According to the outlet, "Kreuper acknowledged diverting money to pay for personal expenses that included credit card charges and 'large gambling expenses incurred at casinos,' the U.S. attorney's office said.". Chief Justice John Roberts announced the opinion from the bench, noting that the teacher who brought the case was not a lay teacher. I, for one, absolutely love this move. Kreuper took fellow nuns on some of those trips and spent thousands of the primary school's money. Kreuper, 79, was charged Tuesday with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, and in a plea agreement pleaded guilty to both charges, the Associated Press reported. Parents and alumni of St. James told KTTV-TV in late 2018 that they hoped the school followed through with pursuing criminal complaints against Kreuper and Chang. Now, nearly three years later, she faces up to 40 years in prison and will appear in the Federal District Court in Los Angeles on July 1. (RNS) Recently Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, a Catholic nun who stole $835,000 from a Catholic elementary school in Torrance, California, was sent to prison for a year and ordered to pay the . The scheme was uncovered during an audit after Kreuper retired in 2018. Kreuper was in charge of the schools credit union account, where she was meant to deposit cash and checks from tuition, fees and donations. As headteacher at St James Catholic School, which she ran for 28 years, she "controlled accounts at a credit union, including a savings account for the school and one established to pay the living expenses of the nuns employed by the school", prosecutors said. In June 2021, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admitted to embezzling $835,000 from the Catholic school where she served as principal for 28 years. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to one year and one day for fraud and money laundering charges. Kreuper, he said, quoting an expert, was addicted to gambling, adding that it "is not an excuse for what she did merely an explanation". Mr Kumar said that jealousy played a part, calling the episode "really an abuse of position of trust". Around the same time, a St. James parent asked question at a school meeting about an old tuition check that had an endorsement on the back of check that did not line up with the schools primary account, the prosecutor said. Kreuper is due in court on 1 July and faces up to 40 years in federal prison. When she announced she was retiring in September 2018, the archdiocese conducted a financial review for the incoming principal. Monday's case, however, does not involve trained and ordained ministers of the faith. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, admitted stealing the money from St James Catholic School in the L.A. suburb of Torrance, where she was school principal for nearly 30 years. It was only after she vacated her position that school officials unearthed her fraudulent scheme. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, a former principal at St James Catholic School in Torrance, California, used tuition fees and donations to subsidize casino gambling expenses and credit card. The nun took frequent gambling trips to Las Vegas and holidays to Lake Tahoe and other locations in southern California, according to Poonam Kumar, the assistant US attorney. He added, Its not meant as an excuse. Despite the ongoing thefts, financial statements revealed the church continuing to operate in the black as the two sisters clandestinely plowed through church funds. Kreuper belongs to the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. They have been removed from their residence, placed in a religious house under the supervision of community leadership, and their freedom of movement is confined.". Each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of 40 years behind bars. Kreuper was 18 years old when she took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, her lawyers told the Post. Although, formally speaking, Kreuper could face a punishment of up to 40 years in prison, it's unlikely she will receive such a long sentence. Poonam Kumar, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California who prosecuted the case, told The Washington Post that Kreuper had diverted checks and cash from St. James parents into a long-overlooked church account to pay for large gambling expenses incurred at casinos and certain credit-card charges. The actions were done before the money could be accounted for, displaying repetitive and deceptive behavior, over and over again, the prosecutor said. Indeed, he observes, they would be exempt not just from anti-discrimination laws, but also laws that protect individuals from retaliation when they report misbehavior to authorities, and laws imposing wage and hour regulations. "These teachers taught the Catholic faith to these kids more than the parish priest," putting them squarely within the so-called ministerial exception, he says. In a statement to The Washington Post, Kreupers lawyers said she is very remorseful and sorry for any harm she has caused. It turns out that at the time Kristen Biel learned she had breast cancer, Kreuper, the school principal who fired her, was embezzling large amounts of money to go on gambling sprees in Las Vegas. The Torrance Police Department, the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation into the allegations against Kreuper. })(); Adriana Kuch attackers identified on social media in planned attack, St Louis execution shooting of homeless man: arrest made, Karen calls cops on black men shovelling snow for free outsider her home, Idaho murder suspect had multiple photos of female victim on phone, Torrance Catholic school nuns steal $500K for gambling habit- church resists charges. The judge settled on a prison sentence of one year and a day and also ordered Kreuper to pay back the money she had stolen from the school. Similar articles were published by the Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and Unilad.co.uk. According to Newstalk.com, the school indicated in a letter to parents at the time that they did not want to pursue criminal charges against the duo, after they both expressed "desire and inten[t] to make complete restitution to St. James School.". The sisters later confessed to using the funds for themselves. I promised her I would see this through," he says. However, around the same time, a family at the school asked for an old check they had written to St. James. BroBible is the #1 place on the internet for the very best content from the worlds of sports, culture, gear, high tech, and more. The tuition checks and funds sent to St. James Catholic School between 2008 and 2018 that were stolen by Kreuper equaled the tuition of 14 different students per year, prosecutors said. St.James Catholic School caught embezzling $500K for personal use, including gambling as church declines to press charges. 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