Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesSister Mary Kreuper served as the principal at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, for 28 years. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Oh boy, the flying nun really did it this time. This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Torrance and Sister Lana Chang. "The church tells us to forgive those who have trespassed against us," Kearns said. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper was 47 years old and had been a Catholic educator for more than 19 years when she came to St. James School in 1988. Some parents said they planned to go to the police as a complaining party. 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 to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. 3 Inmates Taken To Hospitals After Medical Emergency At LA County Jail, SoCal Storm Timeline: When To Expect More Rain, Snow And A Reprieve, Downed Trees & Mud Flows + Check Out Supremes Floating Skate Bowl, 'Cookin with GAS' 30th Anniversary Improv 2023: Groundlings, Los Angeles/WeHo, AlienCon 2023: Convention Center, Pasadena, The Best You Expo is coming to the Los Angeles Convention Center, 3 Days to Party Celebrating Women Everyday in LA, LA Cat Extravaganza & Adoption Event 2023: Fairplex, Pomona, 5th Annual The Best You Awards Ceremony and Charity Gala, Personal Assistant for Older New Yorkers in Manhattan NYC, Modeling Agency For Prostitution Scheme And Sexual Exploitation: AG, Shaken My Turkey's Death Toll, County Looks To Require Quake Retrofits, CA Scandal-Makers & Movie-Makers Shape 2022's Most Popular Baby Names, Michelin Adds 30 SoCal Restaurants To Prestigious Guide, Only In California: Car Chases Even Hollywood Couldn't Dream Up. 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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. Thats when they started to notice irregularities in the bookkeeping. Sister Mary Margaret was charged on Tuesday with wire fraud and money laundering while she was the principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance, Calif., the office of the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California said in a statement. The fraud came to light after the accused, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang . GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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). A California nun will plead guilty to swindling over $800,000 from the Catholic elementary school she ran to help pay for her gambling trips, federal prosecutors said. Shawn Christopher Flannery, age 50 of Batesville, passed away January 28, 2023 at Margaret Mary Health after a long battle with cancer. Most of the money came from school fundraisers; some came from a tuition hike. A financial review showed a substantial amount of school funds had been misappropriated for personal use by Sister Mary Margaret, it said. Church officials said that both Kreuper and Chang confessed to taking the money, and expressed remorse, asking for forgiveness and prayers. 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. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang are believed to have siphoned off cash from tuition fees and donations at St James school in Torrance, near Los Angeles, for at least a decade.. When an audit threatened to expose the scheme, Kreuper instructed St. James employees to destroy documents, according to prosecutors. When Mary Margaret Bartock was born about 1938, her father, Steve, was 39, and her mother, Elizabeth, was 29. ", U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II said at last year's plea hearing that he was raised as a Roman Catholic, "and was educated by nuns. The two embezzling sisters are Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang. At OUSC you will find the most trusted sites to play with cash and the best real money games. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, who worked as the school principal for 28 years, and Sister Lana Chang, confessed to embezzling at least $500,000 from the Catholic school so that they could gamble . They were angry that their children had been denied new facilities at the school because of Kreupers transgressions. Name, email and comment will be stored in our database. Sister Mary Margaret Gambling. Kreuper is the schools former principal. 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.". "The Sisters of St. Joseph both desire and intend to make complete restitution to St. James School," the Daily Breeze reported. news, guides, reviews and information since 1995. the dead priest whose DNA could help solve a nuns decades-old murder, the Missouri nun who smuggled two pounds of cocaine. 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. Kreuper pleaded guilty to the charges in July and also admitted she falsified monthly and annual reports to the school administration, and told employees to cover up her fraudulent conduct. Sister Mary Margaret retired in June after 28 years as principal of the K-8 school, which serves students from Torrance and Redondo Beach. Jack Alexander of Redondo Beach said that the pair would often go traveling and gambling, claiming they had been given the money by a rich relative. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admitted embezzling $835,000 from St James Catholic School in the LA suburb of Torrance. It was then that Kreuper started to get nervous and told two employees to destroy documents and directed them to not mention to the auditors that certain documents were missing. We do know they had a pattern of going to casinos, and the reality is, they used the account as their personal account, the attorney told the crowd at the meeting. As a Catholic nun, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper had taken a vow of poverty. 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. Kumar said Kreuper was able to dodge detection for so many years because she would divert tuition checks and other funds to two old bank accounts that other school administrators were not aware were still being used. Parents said the two nuns were big on moral fortitude . She was rumbled in June 2018, just as she was about to retire after 28 years as principal, when an internal audit blew the lid off the racket. 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). Kreuper's attorney Mark Byrne explained that his client, who retired in 2018, has been under strict supervision at her convent. 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. Kreuper, who used funds to pay for trips to Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Temecula, says she will use the rest of her days trying to make amends. . According to The New York Times, the 79-year-old retired nun was just recently charged with wire fraud and money laundering. She confessed to causing losses to St. James Catholic School totaling $835,339 over the course of the scheme, the statement said. "This is not an excuse for what she did," he said. Basically, for the last three and a half years, shes been driving her fellow sisters to doctors appointments and things like that. The sisters stole a total of $500,000, or half a million dollars, officials said. 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. Two nuns in California allegedly stole more than $500,000 from the school they had been at for years, which they spent in casinos and on vacations. Police have been informed but the Archdiocese does not intend to pursue criminal proceedings against the sisters. This snapshot of Mary Margaret Bartock's life was captured by the 1940 U.S. Census. Sister Mary Margaret worked at the school for 29 years. Ultimately Kreuper admitted to stealing over $835,000. They were able to get away with it because the school was doing so well, financially, that nobody ever missed the money. 'I have sinned': 80-year-old gambling nun jailed after blaming gender pay gap for stealing $800,000 from kids Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper said she stole tuition checks and donations in. Wasnt it weird that she and her friends won every single raffle. For Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, the rest of her mortal life will be decided in a few short weeks. Wikimedia CommonsKreuper used the stolen funds for personal expenses like paying off credit cards but primarily to finance her gambling habit at casinos across Nevada. I have sinned, I have broken the law, and I have no excuses, Kreuper said during Mondays hearing, according to the LA Times. 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. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to one year and one day for fraud and money laundering charges. Chang was a teacher for 20 years before being promoted to vice principal. 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. Alexander said, These nuns took a vow of poverty and said, Oh, no, weve got a rich uncle, Alexander told the paper. It is believed the nuns used that money to spend on travel and gambling at casinos over the years. Performance & security by Cloudflare. The statement pledged that the order would work with the diocese to discover the full amount that had been taken from the school; they pledged to restore all of the money that was stolen. Sister Mary Kreuper served as the principal at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, California, for 28 years. He was unhappy with the churchs decision not to prosecute. 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. 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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,. In total, it is believed she stole $835,339 at least that authorities are currently aware of. 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." Kreuper admitted embezzling about $835,000 (616,000) in donations, tuition and fee money between . We were an ATM, and people know it and they wont ask for justice, Jack Alexander, a father at the school, said. "I was wrong, and I am profoundly sorry for the pain and the suffering that I have caused so many people.". 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. The embezzlement helped to fuel her gambling habit. 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). "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.