Eventually, a forensic accountant discovered that there was a half-million dollars missing from the schools accounts. 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. Powered by. The 80-year-old nun also was ordered to pay a total of. A routine audit upon her retirement raised "several red . Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admitted embezzling $835,000 from St James Catholic School in the LA suburb of Torrance. Some of them said they couldnt understand why the school had been operating on shoestring budget while Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana had been going on gambling sprees. Kreuper acknowledged that for a period of 10 years ending in September 2018, she embezzled $835,339 from St. James Catholic School. 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. Kreuper was the schools principal for 29 years. Name, email and comment will be stored in our database. She is scheduled to appear in the Federal District Court in Los Angeles on July 1. Byrne said the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet already imposed some severe and onerous restrictions on Kreuper. Sister Mary Margarets lawyers, Mark A. Byrne and Daniel V. Nixon, said she was very remorseful., 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, they said in a statement. She confessed after the diocese hired an ex-FBI agent to grill staff members at the school. This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Torrance and Sister Lana Chang. She diverted school funds into the St. James Convent Account and the St. James Savings Account, which were used "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," the Department of Justice stated. But in fact, the sisters were only depositing some of the checks that came in. 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. 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. Some parents said they planned to go to the police as a complaining party. "This is not an excuse for what she did," he said. 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. As soon as she was confronted, she accepted full responsibility for what she had done and she has cooperated fully with law enforcement and the Archdiocese. 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. 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. Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion, Armed Woman Who Held Up Vegas Casino Tracked by Cops, Nuns' Tour Against Trump Tax Law to End at Mar-a-Lago. To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com. Her religious order, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, which according to court documents was paying for her living expenses, said in a statement on Wednesday that it would not comment until the legal process was completed. At the time of Flynns reporting, St. James School estimated the two women embezzled around $500,000. Click to reveal The nuns apparently told everyone that a rich uncle was paying for their trips. From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. 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. She served as the schools principal for 29 years. Her religious order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, has yet to publicly comment on the matter. She also admitted to falsifying monthly and annual financial reports, and to telling school employees to alter and destroy financial records during an audit, the prosecutors statement and court documents said. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. As a Catholic nun, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. 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. But instead of managing the money as the school intended, Kreuper reportedly forged monthly and annual financial statements for the school as well as ordered multiple employees to falsify or destroy records in the midst of an audit. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. At OUSC you will find the most trusted sites to play with cash and the best real money games. Ad Choices, That Lying, Gambling, Embezzling Nun Pleads Guilty. ", 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.". Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, who worked as the school principal for 28 years, and Sister Lana Chang, confessed to embezzling at least $500,000 from the Catholic school so that they could gamble . "The church tells us to forgive those who have trespassed against us," Kearns said. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. 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,. Sister Lana taught there for 20 years. The rich uncle was the parents of the St. James students," he said. The 79-year-old former nun pleaded guilty to federal charges for stealing more than $800,000 from St. James Catholic School earlier this month. 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Blige, Quincy Jones, Chuck D Weigh In on a Persistent Controversy, Lisa Marie Presley Laid to Rest at Graceland, Puyallup Tribe to Redevelop Former Emerald Queen Casino Tacoma Property, Las Vegas Date Set for Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia Boxing Superfight, France's Soccer Boss Out Over Sexual Harassment Claims Ahead of Women's World Cup, Atlantic City Recreational Cannabis Lounge Near Boardwalk Casinos Gains Approval, Aristocrat, IGT Among Winners of EKG Slot Awards, Las Vegas Mansion For Sale With Its Own Private Italian Street, Januarys Las Vegas Room Rates Beat Pre-Pandemic Levels. Two summers ago, Sean Flynn reported a wild story for GQ about two very badly behaved nuns: Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, and Sister Lana Chang, a principal and a teacher at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admits to stealing over $835k from a Catholic School. Chang was a teacher for 20 years before being promoted to vice principal. They wanted to get a Catholic education with the morals and values that they believed in and that they lead their lives in, and thats what they were looking for in the school. But the Catholic church is glad to have a scandal that doesn't involve boy-rape, so they've got that going for them. Most of the money came from school fundraisers; some came from a tuition hike. But this week, prosecutors said Sister Mary Margaret, 79, had agreed to plead guilty to stealing more than. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper was sentenced to a year in prison after she admitted to stealing more than $835,000 from a Southern California school to fund her gambling addiction. Anyone can read what you share. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Oh boy, the flying nun really did it this time. As it stands, the Los Angeles Archdiocese said it was shocked and saddened.. pic.twitter.com/Gcbn0WRky5, Karen Devine (@KarenDevineKESQ) December 11, 2018. "These nuns took a vow of poverty and said, 'Oh no, we've got a rich uncle'. The nuns funneled hundreds of thousands of fundraising dollars into a shell account to support a gambling habit. They noted that a lay person in the same situation could expect a lengthy prison sentence. She basically was able to keep them secret and the school administration was never the wiser that there were these extra funds that she was taking, Kumar told The Post. "At our school, we have initiated additional procedures and oversight policies for financial management and reporting responsibilities," Meyers wrote. ", But a 12-year-old said Kreuper was "just like any other robber.". In a statement on Tuesday about Sister Mary Margarets guilty plea, the archdiocese said the revelations had shocked and saddened the community. According to local news outlet KTLA5, Kreuper was aided by Sister Lana Chang, who taught eighth grade and was vice-principal at the school. In California, a septuagenarian nun faces up to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal fraud and money laundering charges. Graf said: "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.". https://t.co/fsUwStYj3J. A Los Angeles nun jailed for stealing more than $800,000 to fund a gambling habit has admitted "I have sinned". Shawn graduated from Batesville High School in 1991 before attending Ball State University and receiving his BS from . 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. 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. Performance & security by Cloudflare. Sister Mary Margaret retired in June after 28 years as principal of the K-8 school, which serves students from Torrance and Redondo Beach. Of course! We continue to offer our prayers for all impacted by this matter.. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, who was principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, used the school funds to . By Megan Carpentier The St. James Catholic Church school in Torrance, California, on February 7, 2022. 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