She alone will face criminal charges. 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. And I don't look at nuns as ordinary people. 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. They did not necessarily overlook, but asked to judge her more by her entire life rather than the theft from by St. James (Catholic School). By Colin Groundwater June 9, 2021 Two summers ago, Sean Flynn reported a wild story for GQ about two very. GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. A financial review showed a substantial amount of school funds had been misappropriated for personal use by Sister Mary Margaret, it said. 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. The statement also condemned the embezzlement, saying, we will not defend the actions of our Sisters. On December 10, the order issued a statement about the charges of financial misdoings. Defense attorneys said Kreuper became a nun when she was 18 years old, and for the next 59 years "dedicated her life to helping others and educating children in Archdiocesan schools. She retired as the schools principal in 2018, after 28 years in the role, it said. "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. The nuns embezzlement first came to light when Sister Mary Margaret was about to retire, according to church officials. The audit uncovered a long-forgotten account into which Kreuper would divert checks made out to the school. "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. A Los Angeles nun jailed for stealing more than $800,000 to fund a gambling habit has admitted "I have sinned". 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. Two nuns have admitted to embezzling money from the Catholic school where they worked and using the cash to fund gambling sprees. She confessed to causing losses to St. James Catholic School totaling $835,339 over the course of the scheme, the statement said. "The Sisters of St. Joseph both desire and intend to make complete restitution to St. James School," the Daily Breeze reported. 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,. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a110852986c4083 Kreuper was only exposed when she retired in 2018 and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles noted some irregularities in the schools bookkeeping while searching for her replacement. More on this story First at 10 on Fox. 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. Shawn Christopher Flannery, age 50 of Batesville, passed away January 28, 2023 at Margaret Mary Health after a long battle with cancer. I have sinned, I have broken the law, and I have no excuses, Kreuper said during Mondays hearing, according to the LA Times. We had a lot of letters from parents and students who knew about the fact that she had taken the money, and presumably the money was taken from them, and yet they found it in their hearts to forgive her, Byrne said. 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. The attorney said the nuns had spent the money on gambling trips and on vacations. While investigators found the two gave some of the stolen money back to the school, the rest was used for their "personal gain." "At our school, we have initiated additional procedures and oversight policies for financial management and reporting responsibilities," Meyers wrote. The embezzlement helped to fuel her gambling habit. She also controlled the schools credit union accounts, which she used to divert other funds into that she would then use for the spending, according to prosecutors. Would love your thoughts, please comment. They were angry that their children had been denied new facilities at the school because of Kreupers transgressions. https://t.co/fsUwStYj3J. 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. 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. Kreuper was released under her own recognizance but will have to turn herself in to the Federal Bureau of Prisons by June 7 to begin her year-and-a-day sentence. We do know that they had a pattern of going on trips. Meanwhile, she would falsify monthly and annual reports to cover up her conduct. Most of the funds she blew on gambling trips to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe with . Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to one year and one day for fraud and money laundering charges. (Youtube/KCAL) Listen 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. Thanks for contacting us. The nun was in charge of overseeing tuition money, fees the school received and charitable donations, prosecutors said. A great part of her early education came from her mother, who consulted the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives for advice and commissioned him to write De Institutione Feminae Christianae, a treatise on the . Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admitted embezzling $835,000 from St James Catholic School in the LA suburb of Torrance. Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, first made headlines in 2018 after she and another nun were found to have taken as much as $500,000 to finance gambling trips to Las As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. We've received your submission. Parents have acknowledged that there were a number of red flags at St. James, but no one wants to assume the worst of nuns. 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. We do know they had a pattern of going to casinos, and the reality is, they used the account as their personal account, the attorney told the crowd at the meeting. Officials said the sisters were in charge of collecting checks and depositing them into the schools account. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. Kreuper had retired as the school's principal earlier this year and she dealt with the school fees, which she allegedly withheld and deposited into an account only she and Chang knew about, the paper said. According to The New York Times, the 79-year-old retired nun was just recently charged with wire fraud and money laundering. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. But the Catholic church is glad to have a scandal that doesn't involve boy-rape, so they've got that going for them. Sister Mary Margaret Gambling. Officials also say that as they audit started, Sister Mary Margaret started to seem very anxious they say that she even asked people to falsify information for her. Police have been informed but the Archdiocese does not intend to pursue criminal proceedings against the sisters. 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. The disgraced nun stole hundreds of thousands of . By Megan Carpentier The St. James Catholic Church school in Torrance, California, on February 7, 2022. A disgraced nun who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Los Angeles Catholic elementary school and went on Vegas gambling sprees will be reciting her penance from inside a federal prison cell. To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to one year and one day for fraud and money laundering charges. She broke the law, she has no excuses for it and she took full responsibility.. She currently faces up to 40 years in federal prison with a court date set for July 1. That order has also paid for Kreupers living expenses for multiple decades. 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 . There have been calls among some parents for the pair to be charged while others said they should be forgiven. Defense attorney Mark Byrne told The Post that Kreuper joined her order when she was 18 years old and has been an educator for 54 years. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Oh boy, the flying nun really did it this time. Pictured, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang of St.James Catholic School, Torrance, California. 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. Heres what you need to know: An internal investigation found that over several years, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang used funds set aside for St. James Catholic School. Officials said that they carried out an internal audit as a matter of routine, since the school was about to get new leadership. Sister Mary Margaret worked at the school for 29 years. 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 80-year old nun was ordered to pay $825,338.57 she embezzled while principal at St.. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. 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. Shawn is the son of Linda and Bill Flannery born November 25, 1972 in Cincinnati, Ohio. As principal, Kreuper was responsible for the money the school garnered in tuition, fees, and charitable donations. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang were seen as two of the strictest nuns at St James Catholic School in Torrance, California. Most of the money came from school fundraisers; some came from a tuition hike. Instead, they planned to address the situation internally through the investigation, restitution, and sanctions on the sisters. But that plan changed with the charges recently brought up against Sister Kreuper. Kreuper, 79, could get sentenced to up to 40 years behind bars. Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, the former a former principal at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, Los Angeles County, confessed to stealing $500,000 from the school to fund . 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. But this week, prosecutors said Sister Mary Margaret, 79, had agreed to plead guilty to stealing more than $835,000 from a Catholic elementary school to support a gambling habit and to pay for other personal expenses. 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. Click to reveal "These nuns took a vow of poverty and said, 'Oh no, we've got a rich uncle'. 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. Monsignor Micheal Meyers, the pastor at St. James Catholic Church sent a letter to pupils' parents stating that Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the nuns' order, is cooperating with the parish and the Archdiocese to find out how much money was taken. Casino.org is the worlds leading independent online gaming authority, providing trusted online casino "Our community is concerned and saddened by this situation and regret any injury to our long relationship with the families of the school," the Order said in a statement. ", 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.". 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, her lawyers told The Guardian. This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Torrance and Sister Lana Chang. In 1940, she was 2 years old and lived in Belmont, Ohio, with her father, mother, 2 brothers, and sister. But Sister Mary said that she was extremely remorseful and humbled. 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." pic.twitter.com/Gcbn0WRky5, Karen Devine (@KarenDevineKESQ) December 11, 2018. All rights reserved. Two longtime nuns at St. James Catholic School in Torrance allegedly embezzled as much as $500,000 in tuition, fees and donations. Sisters Mary Margaret Krueper, left, and Lana Chang. And wasnt it even weirder that she was going to Vegas all the time? 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. 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. Crime & Safety Gambling Nun's Bad 'Habit' Catches Up To Her Catholic school principal Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, was sentenced to prison for embezzling from the school to feed a gambling habit. A. As a Catholic nun, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty. 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. Chang was a teacher for 20 years before being promoted to vice principal. The 80-year-old nun also was ordered to pay a total of. In December 2018, after a meeting with the archdiocese, the Torrance Police Department said that it was dedicating additional staffing to help examine evidence and find people who had submitted tuition checks, account payment information or cash donations. Kreuper acknowledged that for a period of 10 years ending in September 2018, she embezzled $835,339 from St. James Catholic School. Parents said the two nuns were big on moral fortitude . "I've used this to teach my son that we're all human, we all make mistakes, but the power of forgiveness is the most powerful tool that we have. 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. A California nun will plead guilty to swindling over $800,000 from the Catholic elementary school she ran to help pay for her gambling trips, federal prosecutors said. At the time, the church and archdiocese said that they would not press criminal charges against either woman. But all the while, they were using school funds to pay for their jaunts. Assistant US Attorney Poonam Kumar told The Post that the wayward nun took frequent gambling trips to Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Temecula and other locations throughout Southern California. But somewhere along the line, you just ran completely off the road, and I think you understand that. But according to the US Attorneys Office Central District of California, Kreuper diverted 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.. What happened is wrong. One man, whose children attend St James, grumbled that the nuns had been using the school as if it was their own private ATM. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. 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