A disgraced nun who stole lots of of hundreds of dollars from a Los Angeles Catholic elementary college and went on Vegas playing sprees can be reciting her penance from inside a federal jail cell.
Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to 1 12 months and in the future for fraud and cash laundering expenses. The 80-year-old nun additionally was ordered to pay a complete of $825,338.57 in restitution for the cash she embezzled whereas she was a principal at St. James Catholic College in Torrance, Calif.
Prosecutors mentioned Kreuper, who was the college’s principal for 28 years, diverted funds to pay for bills that her order — the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet — would by no means have authorized, together with massive playing bills from on line casino journeys and bank card expenses she produced from 2008 to September 2018.
Kreuper, who apologized to the group throughout Monday’s sentencing, additionally made a Hail Mary plea to the choose for leniency.
“I've sinned, I've damaged the regulation, and I've no excuses,” Kreuper mentioned throughout Monday’s listening to, in line with theLA Occasions.
Assistant US Lawyer Poonam Kumar informed The Publish that the wayward nun took frequent playing journeys to Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Temecula and different places all through Southern California. Kreuper even took fellow nuns on a few of these excursions and spent hundreds of the elementary college’s cash, Kumar mentioned.
“One of many issues she mentioned when she was first confronted by the LA Archdiocese and even earlier than regulation enforcement obtained concerned was she did it partially as a result of she believes clergymen receives a commission higher than nuns,” Kumar informed The Publish.
Whereas Kreuper spent the college’s funds on playing journeys, the previous principal continued to ask mother and father to donate extra money to the college on high of their $6,000 annual tuition.
“This was actually an abuse of place of belief, proper,” Kumar mentioned. “She was the principal. She was working the college that these mother and father had chosen to ship their kids [to], and never only for the teachers. Most of the letters I cited … and most of the individuals who spoke, talked about wanting one thing extra from their kids’s training.
“They wished to get a Catholic training with the morals and values that they believed in and that they lead their lives in, and that’s what they have been searching for within the college. So there have been a substantial variety of mother and father who have been very upset and clearly feeling fairly betrayed. There have been mother and father who spoke at the moment about how their youngsters are now not affiliated with the church.”
Kreuper pleaded responsible to the fees in July and in addition admitted she falsified month-to-month and annual experiences to the college administration, and informed workers to cowl up her fraudulent conduct.
Kumar mentioned Kreuper was in a position to dodge detection for therefore a few years as a result of she would divert tuition checks and different funds to 2 outdated financial institution accounts that different college directors weren't conscious have been nonetheless getting used. Whereas different checks have been being cashed correctly and accounted for, the crooked nun deposited different checks within the secret financial institution accounts earlier than they have been even accounted for by employees.
“She mainly was in a position to hold them secret and the college administration was by no means the wiser that there have been these further funds that she was taking,” Kumar informed The Publish.
Kumar added Kreuper’s scheme was revealed after the college carried out an off-the-cuff audit shortly after the nun introduced she can be retiring as principal in 2018. It was then that Kreuper began to get nervous and informed two workers to destroy paperwork and directed them to not point out to the auditors that sure paperwork have been lacking.
The staff then reported Kreuper to the monsignor of the parish, Kumar mentioned.
Prosecutors requested for a sentence of two years, however US District Decide Otis D. Wright II mentioned throughout Monday’s sentencing that he additionally struggled to seek out the right sentence for the nun, and even mentioned she was “one heck of a instructor.”
“You will be pleased with that,” Wright mentioned, in line with the LA Occasions. “However someplace alongside the road, you simply ran fully off the highway, and I feel you perceive that. Not less than I hope you do.”
Protection lawyer Mark Byrne informed The Publish that Kreuper joined her order when she was 18 years outdated and has been an educator for 54 years. He mentioned some former St. James Catholic College college students even wrote letters to the choose in help of their former instructor and principal.
“We had a number of letters from mother and father and college students who knew about the truth that she had taken the cash, and presumably the cash was taken from them, and but they discovered it of their hearts to forgive her,” Byrne mentioned. “They didn't essentially overlook, however requested to evaluate her extra by her complete life fairly than the theft from by St. James (Catholic College). However Sister Mary mentioned that she was extraordinarily remorseful and humbled. She broke the regulation, she has no excuses for it and he or she took full duty.”
Byrne mentioned the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet already imposed “some extreme and onerous” restrictions on Kreuper.
“She will’t go away the premises except she’s given permission and he or she has to inform them the place she’s going and he or she must be accompanied by any individual,” the protection lawyer informed The Publish. “Mainly, for the final three and a half years, she’s been driving her fellow sisters to physician’s appointments and issues like that. So she’s mainly beneath home arrest, which she accepts.”
Archdiocese of Los Angeles officers mentioned in a press release that faculty officers and others cooperated with the investigation.
“The archdiocese knowledgeable authorities of the matter in 2018 when monetary opinions throughout a change in management confirmed a considerable quantity of faculty funds had been misappropriated for private use by Sister Mary Margaret throughout her tenure as college principal,” church officers mentioned. “The archdiocese and St. James Parish and College are grateful to native and federal regulation enforcement businesses for his or her work within the investigation of this matter. We proceed to supply our prayers for all impacted by this matter.”
Kreuper was launched beneath her personal recognizance however must flip herself in to the Federal Bureau of Prisons by June 7 to start her year-and-a-day sentence. She can be beneath two years’ supervision when she is launched, Kumar mentioned.
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