But, Fisher counters, that "this isn't something you measure with a stopwatch." The purpose is to protect leaders of the faith, and their religions, from interference by the government. St. James teacher Lana Chang admitted along with Kreuper to the embezzlement in 2018, following each of their retirements earlier that year. But when it came to the vow of poverty, the Southern California nun struggled to maintain her promise to the Catholic Church because of a gambling addiction that was out of control for a decade. The scheme was uncovered during an audit after Kreuper retired in 2018. On June 9, for example, Fox News reported that: A retired Los Angeles nun will plead guilty to embezzling $835,000 from the elementary school where she worked in order to cover her gambling habits and other personal expenses, officials said this week. As principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, she certainly did but while also embezzling more than $835,000 in funds to support her secretive gambling habit. Of course, at 79, the likelihood that Sister Mary Margaret will see any jail time is relatively slim. Mary Kreuper: Nun who stole $835,000 to fund gambling habit admits 'I have sinned', Sister Mary Kreuper embezzled more than 600,000 from the school where she worked. At the time, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet imposed restrictions on the two women, writing in a news release that: "The two Sisters are removed from all public ministry. "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. 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, who worked as the school principal for 28 years, and Sister Lana Chang, a teacher at the school for 20 years, reportedly bilked the funds over a period of at least a decade, the Press-Telegram reported. 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. 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.. Kreuper as the school's principal, handled all tuition payments, with the sister depositing checks into a separate . A spokesperson with St. James did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. But this week, prosecutors said Sister Mary Margaret, 79, had agreed to plead guilty to stealing more than. 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. All rights reserved. She claimed that she was fired after she told her superior, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. All rights reserved. When Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper became a nun, she took vows to live as Jesus did through chastity, obedience and service to the poor, sick and uneducated. Kreuper was 18 years old when she took her vow of poverty, according to her lawyers, and spent the next 59 years of her life dedicated to the church. Sister Mary Margaret was caught in 2018. G7 summit - Biden brings 1.2m Cadillac The Beast but will it fit down Cornwalls tiny country lanes. According to prosecutors, Kreuper admitted that she falsified monthly and annual reports to the school administration to cover up her fraudulent conduct and 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.. Because the funds were to be restored, the archdiocese decided not to press criminal charges. 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". She must give up the right to control or benefit from personal property and commits herself to live interdependently within a community. "I have sinned," Sister Mary told a US . In a statement to the Washinton Post her attorneys, Mark A. Byrne and Daniel V. Nixon, said she is very remorseful and sorry for any harm she has caused.. She is looking forward to getting on with life and will get treatment for her gambling addiction, he said. In these records you will find the most recent and the most authoritative articles on the topics, people and events that are shaping the . She doesn't have any money. 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. The vow leads a nun to imitate Jesus, who for our sake became poor, although he was rich. 5 Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, of Los Angeles, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering Credit: KCAL 9 5 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). BroBible is the #1 place on the internet for the very best content from the worlds of sports, culture, gear, high tech, and more. Ultimately, "they are not people we understand to be spiritual leaders of the church.". Church officials said they did not wish to press charges against the sisters, who both expressed remorse. Kreuper has agreed to plead guilty to the charges in a deal with prosecutors, the US Attorney's Office of California said in a statement. Maybe if she had used her poker face to see more success in Vegas, she wouldnt have been in this position to begin with. The Torrancepair used the money for vacations and gambling at the casino while telling parents that the school was on a tight budget. 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. Sister Mary Margaret became a nun when she turned 18 in 1960 and took a vow of poverty. At least, thats where they caught her. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. She wanted more than she had.. At the sentencing hearing, those who spoke were split on their feelings toward the nun and what she had done. At Monday's argument, Stanford law professor Jeff Fisher, who is representing the teachers, will tell the justices that by the terms of the teachers' contracts and the school handbooks, these teachers were hired to teach academic subjects. Her husband, Darryl Biel, remembers that day vividly. But how do we define who is a minister and who is not? Similar articles were published by the Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and Unilad.co.uk. By that math, Sister Mary Margaret was only 66 when the behavior began. 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.". Kreuper, who took vows of poverty at age 18 and spent 59 years in the religious order, said in her plea agreement that she had begun diverting money from the schools tuition and donation account to a savings account that funded the living expenses of the nuns who worked at the school and then used some of the money herself. var znscr = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper used tuition fees and donations to a California Catholic school to subsidize her casino expenses. The two would skim money off of the top through separate school bank accounts and then head out to Vegas and put it into the casinos. 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 . Starting in 2008, Kreuper diverted school funds to pay for expenses that the order would not have approved, much less paid for, prosecutors say. The auditor found that tuition checks, fees and donations were being deposited into a bank account not used by the school. Kreuper retired as principal of St. James' Catholic School in 2018, after holding that position for 28 years. She faces up to 40 years in federal prison, but is claiming mental illness. She became principal at St. James Catholic School, about 20 miles outside downtown Los Angeles, in 1990. 2023 Blaze Media LLC. Prosecutors had recommended a 24-month prison sentence, three years of . According to prosecutors, Kreuper had stolen whats estimated to have been the tuition for 14 students at the K-8 school in funds that were intended to further the students education, not fund [Kreupers] lifestyle., When confronted, the defendant admitted to stealing the money, Kumar said. Sister Mary Margaret became a nun when she turned 18 in 1960 and took a vow of poverty. 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. 15 Episodes of Seinfeld That Teach Everything You Need To Know About Life. Officials pointed out that Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty as a nun. But. 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. We use cookies to better understand website visitors, for advertising, and to offer you a better experience. Copyright 2008-2023 BroBible. Local 10 News reported Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang of St.James Catholic School (both retiring earlier this year) using money from the school's funds to live a life of luxury over the last ten years. Image Via Scott Varley/Digital First Media/ Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images. Cyclist falls to her death after drawbridge opens while shes on it, Trump tells Joe Rogan to stop apologizing for Spotify controversies, Frozen out of GoFundMe, Canadian protest convoy raises millions on Christian sit. As a Catholic nun, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty. (RELATED: Nuns Allegedly Stole Catholic School Funds For Years: Report). The scheme was uncovered during an audit after Kreuper retired in 2018. var zergnet = document.createElement('script'); "I wanted to face them. James Convent instead of St. 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. A spokesperson for the order confirmed for Snopes that, as of June 9, 2021, Kreuper was still a member of the Los Angeles congregation, but the restrictions against her remained in place, and she was no longer involved in any public ministry. But somewhere along the line, you just ran completely off the road, and I think you understand that. 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 . 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 poverty. Michael Meyers, the pastor at St. James Church. The church body in the case commissions teachers as ministers, but does not ordain them. I, for one, absolutely love this move. 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. The archdiocese of Los Angeles said in statement that the community of faith at St James was shocked and saddened by these actions and expressed gratitude to local and federal law enforcement agencies for their work in the investigation of this matter. US District Court Judge Otis Wright acknowledged his own anguish in deciding a punishment to fit the crime, saying "I haven't slept well in God knows how long" as he rejected prosecutors' call for a two-year sentence. 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. It's very disturbing. Prosecutors said that she had also instructed school employees to alter and destroy financial records. (Shutterstock) LOS ANGELES, CA The retired principal of a Catholic . 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". 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. Rassbach will tell the Supreme Court that not everyone who works at a religious school or institution is exempt from these laws. The fraud was discovered after an internal investigation at the end of the same year. Kreuper also admitted to falsifying monthly and annual reports to the school administration in an effort to cover up the embezzlement. 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. Kreuper took fellow nuns on some of those trips and spent thousands of the primary school's money. A NUN is set to plead guilty to embezzling more than $830,000 from the Catholic elementary school she ran to bankroll her gambling habit, prosecutors say. The Archdiocese appears to have now changed course-with ABC Newsreporting a criminal case may now be in the works following deepening investigations. Investigators described a system in which Kreuper handled all checks made out to the school for tuition and fees before handing them over to bookkeeping staff for processing. The first teacher, Agnes Morrissey-Berru, claimed her employment contract was not renewed after 16 years service because of illegal age discrimination. I have sinned, I have broken the law and I have no excuses, Kreuper told the judge during her hearing, according to the Los Angeles Times. Mr Kumar said that jealousy played a part, calling the episode "really an abuse of position of trust". Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in July to federal wire fraud and money laundering charges. Kobe Bryant's widow awarded nearly $29m after police shared photos of helicopter crash, Doctors recommend end-of-life decision for Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore, Ramon Escobar: Serial murderer suspected of killing prison inmate. However, the church chose not to press charges against the two nuns. The pair confessed to using the funds for gambling excursions to Las Vegas and other spending sprees. My actions were in violation of my vows, my commandments, the law and, above all, the sacred trust that so many had placed in me. She is set to be arraigned in court on July 1. 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. St.James Catholic School caught embezzling $500K for personal use, including gambling as church declines to press charges. As outlined in her plea agreement, beginning in 2008, Kreuper began depositing tuition checks and donations into the school's account and then diverted the money into the covenant account. 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. Make sure you see our stories daily directly to your inbox. zergnet.src = (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? It wasnt until the house of cards came crashing down that she realized what she had done and started to go therapy, where she realized this addiction was a contributing factor. Each time, Kreuper had the same response to the community, according to the Times: How do you expect to pay for it? All the while, Kreuper spoke openly about her gambling trips, saying her vice principals wealthy relatives funded the casino excursions to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, prosecutors say. Kristen Biel would return to teaching elsewhere while fighting her case in court, but in June 2019, she died. His . On Monday night, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles told parents and alumni at a meeting that Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, described as best friends, took around $500,000 from St . James Convent, not St. She just enjoyed gambling, he said. 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 statement said, adding that she has been suffering from a mental illness that clouded her judgment. The schools denied that Morrissey-Berru and Biel were fired for discriminatory reasons. The Greatest Food Debates Of All Time, Answered Pineapple On Pizza? 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