sister mary margaret kreuper

Kumar said the nuns instruction to the auditors sparked suspicion, and they reported the incident to Msgr. Police will still present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office, NBC reported. I, for one, absolutely love this move. 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. 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. When staff members finally found the check, they realized that it was not deposited in a St. James account, but a different bank account. Rather, he said, she is religiously trained and a commissioned minister of the church. 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. Parents and alumni of St. James told KTTV-TV in late 2018 that they hoped the school followed through with pursuing criminal complaints against Kreuper and Chang. Her husband said that in her final days, the couple talked extensively about the case. Ultimately, "they are not people we understand to be spiritual leaders of the church.". But Fisher notes that the schools in these cases do not claim any religious reason for firing the teachers. By that math, Sister Mary Margaret was only 66 when the behavior began. "Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs.". The scheme was uncovered during an audit after Kreuper retired in 2018. You can be proud of that, he said. Prosecutors had recommended a 24-month prison sentence, three years of . Sister Mary Margaret became a nun when she turned 18 in 1960 and took a vow of poverty. Her husband, Darryl Biel, remembers that day vividly. She is set to be arraigned in court on July 1. 2022 Blaze Media LLC. Its an explanation.. Mr Kumar said that jealousy played a part, calling the episode "really an abuse of position of trust". 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. The nuns order says the woman are cooperating and intend to pay all of the money back in full. Kreuper was principal at the school for 28 years. These nuns took a vow of poverty and said, Oh no, weve got a rich uncle, parent Jack Alexander said. 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. Mary Margaret Kreuper was so close to getting away with it. Mark Byrne, Kreupers attorney, told The Post his client had accepted the judges one-year prison sentence, even if they were pushing for probation. In June 2021, Mary Margaret Kreuper, a Catholic nun in the Los Angeles congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. District Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, whereby she committed to pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, and admitted taking part in a 10-year scheme to defraud St. James' Catholic School, an elementary school in Torrance, California, where she had served as principal for 28 years, to the amount of $835,000. Prosecutors said that she had also instructed school employees to alter and destroy financial records. 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. Is A Hot Dog A Sandwich? Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper admits to stealing over $835k from a Catholic School. The 80-year-old nun pleaded for mercy after stealing $835,339 from an elementary Catholic school to fund her gambling addiction.. Eric Rassbach of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who is representing the schools before the court, disagrees. 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. Those reports were accurate, and we are issuing a rating of "True.". After taking a vow of poverty, her excuse for lavish gambling expenses is hilarious. 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. 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. Shes very, very remorseful and very ashamed, he said. Kreuper pleaded guilty last July. 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. This article was published more than1 year ago. Dan Mac Guill is a former writer for Snopes. 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. Nuns should realize that just by living their lives and living the way they do and treating people the way they do, they affect children for the rest of their lives, the judge said, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Rev. 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. The schools, "have never asserted that either of [the teachers] fell short in any religious duty or adherence to the faith," he says. She became principal at St. James Catholic School, about 20 miles outside downtown Los Angeles, in 1990. A federal appeals court ruled against the schools, which appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Torrance Police Department, the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation into the allegations against Kreuper. His wife, he said, drove into their driveway "in tears bawling hysterically. Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana were in the clear. German cardinal offers to resign over sexual abuse catastrophe, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Though he acknowledges that the teachers taught religion from a workbook about three hours a week, Fisher says these teachers were "primarily lay employees" teaching "secular subjects. 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. "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 pair said in a joint statement. 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. 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. 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. Chief Justice John Roberts announced the opinion from the bench, noting that the teacher who brought the case was not a lay teacher. In her plea agreement, Sister Mary Margaret confirmed that the stolen money was used for credit card charges and large gambling expenses incurred at casinos. the U.S. attorneys office said. She claimed that she was fired after she told her superior, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. He had planned to be in Washington for Monday's argument. The school soon had a change of heart following pushback. Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, of Los Angeles, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay $825,338 in restitution. Kreuper, 79, was charged Tuesday with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, and in a plea agreement pleaded guilty to both charges, the Associated Press reported. 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. Because the funds were to be restored, the archdiocese decided not to press criminal charges. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang were seen as two of the strictest nuns at St James Catholic School in Torrance, California. Michael Meyers, the churchs monsignor, said Kreuper was very nervous and anxious during the audit and she reportedly asked staff members to change school records. I promised her I would see this through," he says. "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. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper used tuition fees and donations to a California Catholic school to subsidize her casino expenses. Were those functions to be considered ministerial, Fisher says, the results would be dire. The rich uncle was the parents of the St. James students.. This is because, as part of the plea deal, the prosecutors have agreed to recommend to the court an "offense level" of 25 for Kreuper's crimes, and will further advise the court to reduce that to 23, or even 22. 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. 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. 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