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. 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 Gambling. The embezzlement helped to fuel her gambling habit. They noted that a lay person in the same situation could expect a lengthy prison sentence. Your email address will not be published. Most of the funds she blew on gambling trips to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe with . 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Officials said that they carried out an internal audit as a matter of routine, since the school was about to get new leadership. The nuns embezzlement first came to light when Sister Mary Margaret was about to retire, according to church officials. Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesSister Mary Kreuper served as the principal at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, for 28 years. 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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. Most of the funds she blew on gambling trips to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe with her friend and housemate, Sister Lana Chang. "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. Sister Mary Margaret became a nun when she turned 18 in 1960 and took a vow of poverty. Kreuper even took fellow nuns on some of those excursions and spent thousands of the elementary schools money, Kumar 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. 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. According to The New York Times, the 79-year-old retired nun was just recently charged with wire fraud and money laundering. "At our school, we have initiated additional procedures and oversight policies for financial management and reporting responsibilities," Meyers wrote. What happened is wrong. 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. Until this last spring, Kreuper was the principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance and Chang was. When an audit threatened to expose the scheme, Kreuper instructed St. James employees to destroy documents, according to prosecutors. Sister Mary Margaret admitted to a fraudulent scheme in which she lulled St. James School and the administration into believing that the schools finances were being properly accounted for and its financial assets properly safeguarded, prosecutors said. 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. We do know that they had a pattern of going on trips. She ran the institution on a shoestring while plundering an account containing tuition fees and charitable donations over a period of ten years. 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. news, guides, reviews and information since 1995. In 1940, she was 2 years old and lived in Belmont, Ohio, with her father, mother, 2 brothers, and sister. 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). But in fact, the sisters were only depositing some of the checks that came in. 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. Their crimes came to light in 2018, and earlier this week, Kreuper pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and money laundering. The 80-year old nun was ordered to pay $825,338.57 she embezzled while principal at St.. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a110852986c4083 The audit uncovered a long-forgotten account into which Kreuper would divert checks made out to the school. She said that she diverted school funds into the St. James convent account and then into its federal credit union savings account. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper embezzled $835,339 in the schools tuition, fees, and charitable donations for her personal expenses. Retired nun pleads guilty to embezzling $835,000 from school, in part to finance gambling. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. But somewhere along the line, you just ran completely off the road, and I think you understand that. 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. Kreuper and Chang are both members of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. 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. It is believed the nuns used that money to spend on travel and gambling at casinos over the years. Kreuper used the stolen funds for personal expenses like paying off credit cards but primarily to finance her gambling habit at casinos across Nevada. 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. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, of Los Angeles, will plead guilty to fraud and money laundering and faces up to 40 years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. 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. On Monday, an attorney told the parents of St James students that the two nuns had used school funds as if the funds belonged to their own personal account. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, was sentenced to one year and one day for fraud and money laundering. And I don't look at nuns as ordinary people. So there were a considerable number of parents who were very upset and obviously feeling quite betrayed. Besides, both the nuns in question were in positions of trust. 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." Most of the money came from school fundraisers; some came from a tuition hike. And wasnt it even weirder that she was going to Vegas all the time? By Colin Groundwater June 9, 2021 Two summers ago, Sean Flynn reported a wild story for GQ about two very. Sisters of St. Joseph of CarondeletSister Lana Chang worked alongside Sister Kreuper for 20 years, at least 10 of which they spent embezzling the schools money together. She cant leave the premises unless shes given permission and she has to tell them where shes going and she has to be accompanied by somebody, the defense attorney told The Post. In July 1520, when scarcely four and a half years old, she entertained a visiting French delegation with a performance on the virginals (a type of harpsichord). 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. Anyone can read what you share. Church officials expressed willingness to forgive the two sisters for embezzling half a million dollars from the church. 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). Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? 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. 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. 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. Of course! Kreuper's attorney Mark Byrne explained that his client, who retired in 2018, has been under strict supervision at her convent. 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. Parents have acknowledged that there were a number of red flags at St. James, but no one wants to assume the worst of nuns. 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. 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 . We were an ATM, and people know it and they wont ask for justice, Jack Alexander, a father at the school, said. Shawn graduated from Batesville High School in 1991 before attending Ball State University and receiving his BS from . Southern California authorities have revealed two nuns allegedly embezzling up to $500K which was parlayed . She currently faces up to 40 years in federal prison with a court date set for July 1. She was running the school that these parents had chosen to send their children [to], and not just for the academics. When Mary Margaret Bartock was born about 1938, her father, Steve, was 39, and her mother, Elizabeth, was 29. Kreuper is also accused of directing school employees to alter and destroy financial records while the audit was in process. Two nuns from California stole funds from the Catholic school they were at and spent in on vacations and gambling. More on this story First at 10 on Fox. 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. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admits to stealing over $835k from a Catholic School. 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 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. Parents said the two nuns were big on moral fortitude and that they were very hard on kids who slipped up and broke the rules. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. Kreuper stole about $83,000 per year, which is the equivalent of tuition for 14 students, prosecutors argued. 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. The nuns apparently told everyone that a rich uncle was paying for their trips. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to one year and one day for fraud and money laundering charges. Sister Kreuper who took a vow of poverty confessed to using the embezzled funds to pay for personal expenses, including her gambling habit. The diocese had initially called the police, but after the nuns confessed they said they wouldnt press charges against the nuns. Kreuper, 79, could get sentenced to up to 40 years behind bars. 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. While other checks were being cashed properly and accounted for, the crooked nun deposited other checks in the secret bank accounts before they were even accounted for by staff. Kumar added Kreupers scheme was revealed after the school performed an informal audit shortly after the nun announced she would be retiring as principal in 2018. But all the while, they were using school funds to pay for their jaunts. Ultimately Kreuper admitted to stealing over $835,000. Byrne said the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet already imposed some severe and onerous restrictions on Kreuper. The rich uncle was the parents of the St. James students.. They are also removed from all public ministry., Sisters Mary Margaret Krueper & Lana Chang: 5 Fast Facts, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. Kreuper served as the principal at St. James Catholic school in Torrance, California, 28. 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