sister mary margaret kreupersister mary margaret kreuper

Trust shouldnt be broken like that., Others, such as Kevin Kearns, whose son had gone to the school, said the nun had put the students and parents above everything else., The church tells us to forgive those who have trespassed against us, Kearns said. I wanted them to see me," he says "and I just pray that the justices see the right way.". znscr.parentNode.insertBefore(zergnet, znscr); She also controlled two savings accounts, one for the school and one for the nuns living expenses. Pic: St James Catholic School. 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". 2022 Blaze Media LLC. Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in July to federal wire fraud and money laundering charges. Despite the ongoing thefts, financial statements revealed the church continuing to operate in the black as the two sisters clandestinely plowed through church funds. ", Church says nuns embezzled from SoCal school to cover Vegas gambling tripswww.youtube.com. 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. The vow leads a nun to imitate Jesus, who for our sake became poor, although he was rich. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, the retired principal of St. James Catholic School in California, has been sentenced to one year and a day in prison on charges of money laundering and federal wire. St.James Catholic School caught embezzling $500K for personal use, including gambling as church declines to press charges. The St. James Catholic Church school in Torrance, California, on February 7, 2022. They added that "later in her life, she has been suffering from a mental illness that clouded her judgment and caused her to do something that she otherwise would not have done.. She really didnt stay true to it at all, actually. zergnet.src = (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? Kreuper signed the plea agreement, which Snopes has obtained and which can be read in full here, on June 2, 2021. Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering on Tuesday and has agreed to a plea deal, according to a release from the U.S. attorneys office for the Central District of California. 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. Her husband, Darryl Biel, remembers that day vividly. There is another, and rather rich, twist to one of the cases before the court Monday. She claimed that she was fired after she told her superior, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. 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.". He argued that while the money she stole might have affected the schools funding, her actions didnt decrease the quality of education students received at St. James. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79,of Los Angeles, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering on Tuesday for defraudingSt. James Catholic Schoolover a period of 10 years. By that math, Sister Mary Margaret was only 66 when the behavior began. Told one parent, We were an ATM, and people know it and they wont ask for justice., The embezzlement and the churchs seeming reluctance to act has led to some locals saying the scandal underscores a failure of church leadership- while also noting that only a police investigation can be trusted.. 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 Daily Caller | 1775 Eye Street NW | Suite 1150-290 | Washington, DC 20006. Similar articles were published by the Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and Unilad.co.uk. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison, months after she admitted to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from St. James Catholic School in Torrance . BroBible is the #1 place on the internet for the very best content from the worlds of sports, culture, gear, high tech, and more. Also implicated in the scheme was Lana Chang, who worked as a teacher at St. James before becoming vice principal. Poonam Kumar, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California who prosecuted the case, told The Washington Post that Kreuper had diverted checks and cash from St. James parents into a long-overlooked church account to pay for large gambling expenses incurred at casinos and certain credit-card charges. The actions were done before the money could be accounted for, displaying repetitive and deceptive behavior, over and over again, the prosecutor said. I have sinned, Ive broken the law and I have no excuses, Kreuper said at the sentencing over Zoom. All rights reserved. They say she also instructed employees at the school to alter and destroy financial records during a school audit, investigators found. 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. Jaclyn Peiser contributed to this report. However, the church chose not to press charges against the two nuns. zergnet.type = 'text/javascript'; zergnet.async = true; Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, who was principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, used the school funds to pay for personal expenses, including gambling trips, according to the release. 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. I don't drink coffee, I wake up jacked. Of course, at 79, the likelihood that Sister Mary Margaret will see any jail time is relatively slim. I, for one, absolutely love this move. 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 . The pair confessed to using the funds for gambling excursions to Las Vegas and other spending sprees. By Colin Groundwater June 9, 2021 Two summers ago, Sean Flynn reported a wild story for GQ about two very. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Nun stops burglary with quick thinking and prayers: This is Gods property, Sister Andre, the worlds oldest living person, dies at 118, I was a celibate nun for 24 years then fell in love with a Catholic monk, Priest accused of inviting two nuns to take part in a threesome. Michael Meyers, the pastor at St. James Church. In total, across a period of 10 years, Kreuper siphoned $835,339 from the school's accounts. Its an explanation.. Maryland man, 52, sues bar over ban cause he was old Missouri daughter secretly donates kidney to ailing dad. 2023 Blaze Media LLC. The judge settled on a prison sentence of one year and a day and also ordered Kreuper to pay back the money she had stolen from the school. 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.". Let us pray for our school families and for Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana, the letter added. Shes very, very remorseful and very ashamed, he said. Sister Mary is not full of grace. Kreuper admitted embezzling about $835,000 (616,000) in donations, tuition and fee money between 2008 and 2018. 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 set to be arraigned in court on July 1. That was the first clue that unraveled a significant scheme. 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 . His . Kreuper as the schools principal, handled all tuition payments, with the sister depositing checks into a separate account that she and Chang had access to. A federal appeals court ruled against the schools, which appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2012, the Supreme Court sought to answer that question, agreeing unanimously that a fourth-grade teacher who was commissioned as a minister could not sue over her firing by a Lutheran school. His wife, he said, drove into their driveway "in tears bawling hysterically. In the process, Kreuper falsified monthly and annual reports to the St. James 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, according to court documents. The now-retired nun (I didnt know nuns could retire) admitted to stealing about $835,000 in donations, tuition and fees. But, Fisher counters, that "this isn't something you measure with a stopwatch." "https:" : "http:") + '//www.zergnet.com/zerg.js?id=47402'; News of the indiscretions led to the archdiocese and the church announcing they wouldnt file criminal charges against the nuns after apologizing for their actions. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty. But. A Los Angeles nun jailed for stealing more than $800,000 to fund a gambling habit has admitted "I have sinned". Each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of 40 years behind bars. The second suit was brought by Kristen Biel against St. James School in Torrance. Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana have expressed to me and asked that I convey to you, the deep remorse they each feel for their actions and ask for your forgiveness and prayers, Meyers wrote in a letter to parents on Nov. 28. She then used some of the funds to pay for "large gambling expenses incurred at casinos and certain credit card charges.. Five of the nine justices hearing Monday's case attended Catholic secondary schools, and several of them have sent their children to parochial schools as well. She betrayed the trust of people in the community, the parents, students, the archdiocese and the sisters. 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. Kreuper did not recognize she had a gambling problem until she was accused of embezzling more than $835,000 from the school, Byrne said. Kreuper pleaded guilty last July. In doing so, she agreed to plead guilty to: The money laundering charge relates to an episode in 2017, in which Kreuper improperly deposited checks from parents of pupils at the school into a convent bank account, rather than the school's bank account, then later used the convent account to write a $6,000 check to another unnamed person who subsequently cashed the check and gave Kreuper $6,000 in cash "so she could gamble in Nevada.". As headteacher at St James Catholic School, which she ran for 28 years, she "controlled accounts at a credit union, including a savings account for the school and one established to pay the living expenses of the nuns employed by the school", prosecutors said. She would endorse the checks with a stamp saying St. Her embezzlement activities took place from about 2008-2018. The 80-year-old nun pleaded for mercy after stealing $835,339 from an elementary Catholic school to fund her gambling addiction.. We do know they had a pattern of going to casinos, and the reality is, they used the account as their personal account, an attorney told parents and alumni at Mondays meeting. The DOJ noted that Kreuper had diverted the school funds to pay for expenses that the order [of nuns] would not have approved. Among the expenses Kreuper accrued were those from casinos and credit card charges. During the time period this was happening, she had no idea this was happening. 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. 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. Sister Kreuper who took a vow of poverty confessed to using the embezzled funds to pay for personal expenses, including her gambling habit. When this was going on, she was not nearly as old. For the second time in as many weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court is tackling a major religion case. 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. When first confronted, Mr Kumar said, the nun claimed she "did it in part because she believes priests get paid better than nuns". James Convent, not St. When Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper was 18 years old, she vowed to dedicate her life to the education of children and helping those in need. Image Via Scott Varley/Digital First Media/ Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images. But how do we define who is a minister and who is not? While claiming to live financially destitute like Jesus Christ is probably blasphemous, using the old Im poor, but my uncle is rich line and getting away with it speaks to Sister Mary Margarets impressive poker face. 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 card. Mr Kumar said that jealousy played a part, calling the episode "really an abuse of position of trust". The Greatest Food Debates Of All Time, Answered Pineapple On Pizza? Mary Margaret Kreuper was so close to getting away with it. "She's 80. Southern California authorities have revealed two nuns allegedly embezzling up to $500K which was parlayed into gambling jaunts in Las Vegas. This material may not be reproduced without permission. Sister Mary Margaret became a nun when she turned 18 in 1960 and took a vow of poverty. 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 . The schools, which appealed to the U.S. Supreme court Church says nuns embezzled SoCal... Up jacked excursions to Las Vegas implicated in the scheme was Lana Chang, who worked as a at! | Washington, DC 20006 Scott Varley/Digital first Media/ Torrance Daily Breeze Via Getty Images by Los! Many weeks, the parents, students, the parents, students, the likelihood that Sister Mary Margaret a... Was Lana Chang, who for our sake became poor, although he was rich story for GQ about very! 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