Nun Faces Jail-Time for Stealing School Funds

An elderly Catholic nun has admitted to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from an elementary school in Torrance, California.

From 1990 to her retirement in 2018, Mary Margaret Kreuper served as the principal of St James Catholic School. In ten of those years, however, she forsook her vow of poverty by stealing more than $835 000 from the school to fund her gambling habit.

Per a statement from her legal team – which was released on Tuesday, 8 June – Kreuper, as principal, “controlled accounts at a credit union, including a savings account for the school and one established to pay the living expenses of the nuns employed by the school.”

Thus, it is from these accounts that the 79-year-old nun embezzled the funds in order to go wild at casinos and pay off credit card charges.

Now facing charges of wire fraud and money laundering, Kreuper – who feels “very remorseful” over her actions – has agreed to plead guilty. This could see her spending up to 40 years in federal prison.

She is scheduled to appear in the Federal District Court in Los Angeles on 1 July.

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