A 79-year old Catholic nun, Mary Margaret Kreuper, will plead guilty to stealing school funds.
Sister Kreuper, who had taken a vow of poverty since she was 18, is being prosecuted for stealing from the St James Catholic School in Torrance, California, where she worked for 28 years in order to support her gambling addiction.
According to US prosecutors, the nun allegedly stole more than $835,000 while working as the principal of the school in suburban Los Angeles, and began stealing in the 10 years leading up to her retirement in 2018.
Her attorney, Mark Byrne, told newsmen that a plea agreement will see her admit to diverting funds to pay off large gambling debts, but she was “very remorseful” and that mental illness had clouded her judgement.
“Unfortunately, later in her life she has been suffering from a mental illness that clouded her judgment and caused her to do something that she otherwise would not have done,” the statement said.
According to a statement filed in support of the plea agreement, Kreuper oversaw the school’s financial affairs and managed its bank accounts. She was a signatory on two accounts opened at a credit union in the 1980s and ’90s — a savings account for the school and an account that was created to pay for the living expenses of nuns employed by the school.
Kreuper has admitted to taking cash and checks that were made by parents to the school and depositing that money into both accounts without the knowledge of school officials.
To conceal the scheme, Kreuper said she falsified monthly and annual school financial reports, failing to include references to both accounts and the full funds that were deposited into and withdrawn from them.
She is due to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering later on Wednesday.
She is now facing 40 years in jail.
