Nun sentenced to 1 year for embezzling $835K from school

Feb. 9 (UPI) -- An 80-year-old California nun was sentenced to one year in federal prison on Monday after entering a guilty plea for stealing more than $835,000 from her Catholic school to support a gambling habit

U.S. District Judge Otis Wright also ordered Mary Margaret Kreuper to repay most of the money she took from St. James Catholic School, where she had served as principal for more than 28 years.

Kreuper had entered a guilty plea last July on one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in the case. Prosecutors said that over a 10-year period, the nun embezzled funds that were meant for tuition and fees, as well as for charitable donations.

"I have sinned, I have broken the law, and I have no excuses," Kreuper told Wright at her sentencing, according to the Los Angeles Times. She said her crimes were "a violation of my vows, the commandments, the law and above all the sacred trust that so many had placed in me."

Kreuper 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.

Prosecutors said Kreuper falsified monthly and annual reports to the school administration to cover up her fraudulent conduct.

They said she "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."

Prosecutors said she also ordered school employees to alter and destroy financial records during a school audit.