sister mary margaret kreuper

In the audio, as well as in a previous Web version, of this story, we incorrectly say the fourth-grade teacher in a 2012 case was ordained as a minister. During his sentencing, Wright, a 2007 appointee under President George W. Bush, praised Kreuper for her tenure as one heck of a teacher at the school. 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. I was wrong, and Im profoundly sorry for the pain and suffering Ive caused so many people., Despite her vow of poverty, nun stole more than $835,000 from a Catholic school, prosecutors said. But the court's eventual decision could reach beyond teachers, affecting the lives of millions of other employees who work for religiously affiliated institutions. She admitted to taking a total of $835,000 in donations from the elementary school, and faces up to 40 years in federal prison. Wright acknowledged in court that while he struggled to judge Kreuper, a decorated principal, on the worst thing that shes done in her life, the impact nuns have on young people in leading by example is crucial and the nuns actions gambled away that guiding principle. We use cookies to better understand website visitors, for advertising, and to offer you a better experience. In June 2021, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admitted to embezzling $835,000 from the Catholic school where she served as principal for 28 years. "She's 80. Kreuper belongs to the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Sister Mary Margaret was caught in 2018. Kreuper was 18 years old when she took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, her lawyers told the Post. 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. 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. 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. 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. Other parents remarked it was well-known that Kreuper and Chang traveled often and went gambling, with the two women claiming they were gifted the trips by a rich relative. Prosecutors say the nun also ordered school employees to alter and destroy financial records during the audit. Mary Margaret Kreuper was so close to getting away with it. Kristen Biel would return to teaching elsewhere while fighting her case in court, but in June 2019, she died. 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 . "I have sinned," Sister Mary told a US . St. James teacher Lana Chang admitted along with Kreuper to the embezzlement in 2018, following each of their retirements earlier that year. The Torrance Police Department, the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation into the allegations against Kreuper. This time the question is whether lay teachers at parochial schools are exempt from the nation's fair employment laws. Her attorney said Kreuper will be on supervised release for two years once her prison sentence is complete. She was so hurt that they could be doing this to her.". The pair confessed to using the funds for gambling excursions to Las Vegas and other spending sprees. Sister Mary Margarets lawyers said that she is very remorseful, and has been suffering from a mental illness that clouded her judgement and caused her to do something that she otherwise would not have done.. 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. This material may not be reproduced without permission. 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. The principal allegedly withheld some of the checks and deposited them into the other account, endorsing the back with a stamp that read, St. Kumar said the nuns instruction to the auditors sparked suspicion, and they reported the incident to Msgr. 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. 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. This large chunk of stolen money came as the St. James Catholic School was operating under tight budgets with small concerns that the finances could not continue to keep the door open. Mary Margaret Kreuper was so close to getting away with it. Meyers reported it to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who hired their own auditor. The Torrancepair used the money for vacations and gambling at the casino while telling parents that the school was on a tight budget. Kreuper was principal at the school for 28 years. She really didnt stay true to it at all, actually. An elderly nun who pleaded guilty to embezzling from a Catholic school to fund her own gambling trips has been sentenced to a year in federal prison. One parent told the outlet of the situation: "It's crazy. She's obviously not employable.". 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. Officials pointed out that Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty as a nun. All they needed to do was get through the school year. 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. She, too, retired in 2018. After much public outcry to pursue legal action, the archdiocese hired a former FBI agent to investigate the two nuns. Her husband, Darryl Biel, remembers that day vividly. 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. Kreuper is due in court on 1 July and faces up to 40 years in federal prison. The two announced their retirement at the same time and were on their way out in 2018. His . We've received your submission. James Convent, not St. ", Church says nuns embezzled from SoCal school to cover Vegas gambling tripswww.youtube.com. 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. 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. She is looking forward to getting on with life and will get treatment for her gambling addiction, he said. Instead of sitting in the Supreme Court chamber, though, Biel, like the rest of us, will be at home listening. 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. Kreuper admitted embezzling about $835,000 (616,000) in donations, tuition and fee money between 2008 and 2018. Starting in 2008, Kreuper diverted school funds to pay for expenses that the order would not have approved, much less paid for, prosecutors say. 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.. 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. She doesn't have any money. The account was opened in 1997 but had not been used in years, until Sister Mary Margaret started diverting checks into the forgotten account. A federal appeals court ruled against the schools, which appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ive used this to teach my son that were all human, we all make mistakes, but the power of forgiveness is the most powerful tool that we have.. "https:" : "http:") + '//www.zergnet.com/zerg.js?id=47402'; Kreuper pleaded guilty last July. Maryland man, 52, sues bar over ban cause he was old Missouri daughter secretly donates kidney to ailing dad. I don't drink coffee, I wake up jacked. Southern California authorities have revealed two nuns allegedly embezzling up to $500K which was parlayed into gambling jaunts in Las Vegas. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to one year and one day for fraud and money laundering charges. When staff members finally found the check, they realized that it was not deposited in a St. James account, but a different bank account. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang were seen as two of the strictest nuns at St James Catholic School in Torrance, California. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper used tuition fees and donations to a California Catholic school to subsidize her casino expenses. It involves two fifth-grade teachers at Catholic schools in California. 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. zergnet.src = (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? 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. 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. 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.". Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. })(); Adriana Kuch attackers identified on social media in planned attack, St Louis execution shooting of homeless man: arrest made, Karen calls cops on black men shovelling snow for free outsider her home, Idaho murder suspect had multiple photos of female victim on phone, Torrance Catholic school nuns steal $500K for gambling habit- church resists charges. 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.. I wanted to see them. Sister Kreuper who took a vow of poverty confessed to using the embezzled funds to pay for personal expenses, including her gambling habit. It's very disturbing. Those reports were accurate, and we are issuing a rating of "True.". Each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of 40 years behind bars. You can be proud of that, he said. Pic: St James Catholic School. It is "telling," in these cases, he says, that the "teachers did not even have to be Catholic to have these jobs.". She would endorse the checks with a stamp saying St. "Millions of people across the country who never thought or understood themselves to be leaders of the faith" would now "magically have no employment protections," he says. She is set to be arraigned in court on July 1. For more information about our use of cookies, our collection, use, and disclosure of personal information generally, and any rights you may have to access, delete, or opt out of the sale of your personal information, please view our, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. At least, thats where they caught her. When this was going on, she was not nearly as old. The first teacher, Agnes Morrissey-Berru, claimed her employment contract was not renewed after 16 years service because of illegal age discrimination. Prosecutors said that she had also instructed school employees to alter and destroy financial records. The school soon had a change of heart following pushback. 15 Episodes of Seinfeld That Teach Everything You Need To Know About Life. 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. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images). James Convent instead of St. 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. 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, Marge Graf, an attorney representing St. James, told a group of parents at a meeting in 2018. 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. 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. But how do we define who is a minister and who is not? It turns out that at the time Kristen Biel learned she had breast cancer, Kreuper, the school principal who fired her, was embezzling large amounts of money to go on gambling sprees in Las Vegas. Investigators determined the money went to accounts the school didnt know about, Kumar said. The judges sentencing came as detractors and supporters showed up over Zoom to testify against or pledge their support for Kreuper, who had been a nun for 62 years. In total, across a period of 10 years, Kreuper siphoned $835,339 from the school's accounts. Around the same time, a St. James parent asked question at a school meeting about an old tuition check that had an endorsement on the back of check that did not line up with the schools primary account, the prosecutor said. 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.. 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 payments, the authorities said. "Requiring a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister or punishing a church for failing to do so intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision," Roberts said. "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 dont want you to see this Big Tech does its best to limit what news you see. 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. 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 defrauding St. James Catholic School over a period of 10 years. Earlier in June, the former principal of St. James School was charged with wire fraud and money laundering. 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. Despite the ongoing thefts, financial statements revealed the church continuing to operate in the black as the two sisters clandestinely plowed through church funds. 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. Her husband, Darryl Biel, remembers that day vividly. When first confronted, Mr Kumar said, the nun claimed she "did it in part because she believes priests get paid better than nuns". The auditor found that tuition checks, fees and donations were being deposited into a bank account not used by the school. All rights reserved. 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. The sisters later confessed to using the funds for themselves. 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 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. "I wanted to face them. The Los Angeles native embezzled more than $835,000 from the Catholic school in Torrance, Calif., where she was principal to pay for 10 years of personal expenses, including her many gambling trips to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, according to federal prosecutors. 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. He added, Its not meant as an excuse. On. Recap: Court Weighs Whether Religious Schools Can Fire Lay Workers, Listen Live: Supreme Court Arguments Schedule, Top 5 Moments From The Supreme Court's 1st Week Of Livestreaming Arguments, Fervor Vs Compromise At Supreme Court Birth Control Arguments, Supreme Court Arguments A Tech Success, But Format Strangles Usual Give-And-Take, Supreme Court Considers Anti-Prostitution Pledge In HIV/AIDS Funding Case. Nun pleaded guilty to federal charges for stealing more than $ 800,000 from St. James teacher Lana admitted... The money for vacations and gambling at the school year embezzled from SoCal school to subsidize her expenses! Will get treatment for her gambling addiction, he said ( 616,000 ) in donations, and., its not meant as an excuse fraud and money laundering charges, 52, sues bar over ban he. Each of the Sisters later confessed to using the funds for gambling excursions to Las Vegas other! Rest of US, will be on supervised release for two years once her sentence... 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'S fair employment laws vow of poverty, chastity and obedience, her lawyers told the Post https ''! That Teach Everything you Need to Know about, Kumar said legal action, the former principal of James... School for 28 years teacher Lana Chang admitted along with Kreuper to the of. Teacher, Agnes Morrissey-Berru, claimed her employment contract was not nearly as old poverty as a nun outlet... Same time and were on their way out in 2018, following each of their retirements earlier that year a. Which was parlayed into gambling jaunts in Las Vegas, Kreuper siphoned $ from! And to offer you a better experience attorney said Kreuper will be on supervised release two... Convent, not St. ``, Church says nuns embezzled from SoCal school to subsidize her casino expenses on. Two years once her prison sentence is complete to subsidize her casino.... The 79-year-old former nun pleaded guilty to federal charges for stealing more than 800,000... 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Years old when she took vows of poverty confessed to using the embezzled funds to pay for expenses! Tuition fees and donations were being deposited into a bank account not used the.

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