Mary Margaret Kreuper, a 79-year-old retired nun from California, has agreed to plead guilty to charges of stealing over $800,000 from a catholic school.
via: Daily News
She admitted that in 2008 she began swiping money from the school and depositing it into a personal account, the Justice Department said in a press release.
As principal, Kreuper was in charge of managing the school’s accounts at a credit union. Her scheme lasted until 2018, when it was revealed by an investigation into an old check.
Other nuns said Kreuper and her reported accomplice, Sister Lana Chang, were known to go on trips to Las Vegas and gamble. Kreuper and Chang claimed the money came from a “rich uncle,” according to other St. James School employees.
While the Church decided not to press charges, the feds investigated anyway because theft is not only a crime against God, but a crime against man. Kreuper pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors also noted that Kreuper took a vow of poverty, but did not acknowledge that she may have been living up to it by losing so much money in Las Vegas.
It is unclear if the feds plan to prosecute Chang as well. Kreuper’s arraignment is scheduled for July 1. She faces a maximum of 40 years in prison.
Kreuper was able to go undetected for so long by falsifying??????? reports and “lulled St. James School and the Administration into believing that the school’s 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 school’s finances and accounts and, thus, continue operating the fraudulent scheme.”
