Kreuper controlled accounts at a credit union, including a savings account for the school and one established to pay the living expenses of nuns -- who had taken a vow of poverty -- employed by the school, prosecutors said. She was running the school that these parents had chosen to send their children [to], and not just for the academics. Ultimately Kreuper admitted to stealing over $835,000. 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. Kreuper and Chang are both members of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. 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. Pictured, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang of St.James Catholic School, Torrance, California. Crime Calif. Nun, 80, Sentenced for Stealing More than $800K from Catholic School to Fund Gambling Addiction Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper pleaded guilty for using funds to pay for. 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. 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. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admits to stealing over $835k from a Catholic School. Ad Choices, That Lying, Gambling, Embezzling Nun Pleads Guilty. Let us pray for our school families and for Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana," Myers added . Looking back, though, wasnt it a little strange that Sister Mary Margaret was always organizing poker nights at the school for charity, and that she always made the final table? Kreuper is the schools former principal. 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 retired in June after 28 years as principal of the K-8 school, which serves students from Torrance and Redondo Beach. People gamble in a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in this illustrative image. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, who was principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, used the school funds to . For a period of 10 years starting in 2008, Kreuper embezzled money from St. James Catholic School where she was the school's principal, a position she held for 28 years. Parents told The Daily Breeze in December 2018 they were not prepared to absolve Kreuper of her sins. Some parents said they planned to go to the police as a complaining party. All rights reserved. Of course! Kreuper claimed she had a rich uncle who paid for the trips. 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 . 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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. 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. In total, it is believed she stole $835,339 at least that authorities are currently aware of. The two nuns. Margaret Mary Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang were accused of embezzling tuition, fees, and donations made in favor of St. James Catholic School to fund their gambling trips (Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet) Kreuper is also accused of directing St. James School employees to alter and destroy financial records during a school audit. 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. This was really an abuse of position of trust, right, Kumar said. 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. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. 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. But this week, prosecutors said Sister Mary Margaret, 79, had agreed to plead guilty to stealing more than. 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). 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. At the time, the church and archdiocese said that they would not press criminal charges against either woman. Sister Mary Margaret Gambling. Police said they were still carrying out their own investigation. She'd taught fifth grade at Our Lady of Las Vegas . Kreuper claimed the school was always strapped for cash, then funneled donations into shell accounts that she and Chang would use to fund trips to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. 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. Prosecutor said she also admitted to falsifying the schools financial records. The sisters stole a total of $500,000, or half a million dollars, officials said. The rest, they were depositing into a separate account and using for their own purposes. "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. https://t.co/fsUwStYj3J. 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. Before Kreuper was sentenced, parents of children attending St. James and former students sent letters about Kreuper's role at the school and the impact of her actions. 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. After reading about the retired nun who stole over $800,000 to support her gambling habit, learn about the dead priest whose DNA could help solve a nuns decades-old murder. 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.". We've received your submission. 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. 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. 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 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. We continue to offer our prayers for all impacted by this matter.. 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. 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