Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, an octogenarian nun living in Los Angeles, has just been sentenced to one year in prison for embezzlement.
The nun, who had taken a vow of poverty more than sixty years ago, was finally lured by the greed. Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, principal of Saint James Private Catholic School in South Los Angeles, took advantage of her status to embezzle money from her school. Some payments and checks intended to finance school activities ended up in his pocket.
The extent of the embezzlement, which lasted several years, amounts to more than 800,000 dollars (more than 700,000 euros) that she used to play at the casino. Then, she took advantage of the profit she was making through gambling to treat herself to a few tourist trips. In court, the nun did not try to hide her crime, and confessed: “I sinned, I broke the law and I have no excuse.”
Beyond the Law, Sister Mary Margaret Kreupeur acknowledges that her actions constitute a “violation of her vows, of the commandments and above all of the sacred trust” that so many people had placed in her. The nun had admitted the facts last year, but this story required an audit to discover the fraud. Indeed, before going to court, the nun tried to hide her vices by asking her employees to destroy certain compromising documents.
Moreover, faced with insistent questions from the archdiocese, Sister Mary Margaret Kreupeur replied that priests were much better paid than nuns. Because of this, she thought she deserved a raise.
Mark Byrne, the nun’s lawyer, spoke of a gambling addiction and asked that his client be able to serve her sentence in the convent where she has been established since the discovery of her embezzlement in 2018.
