In June 2021, several local, national, and international news outlets reported that a nun in California had admitted, and was preparing to plead guilty to, embezzling $835,000 from the Catholic school she ran for three decades.
On June 9, for example, Fox News reported that:
A retired Los Angeles nun will plead guilty to embezzling $835,000 from the elementary school where she worked in order to cover her gambling habits and other personal expenses, officials said this week.
Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering on Tuesday and has agreed to a plea deal, according to a release from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California. Kreuper, who had taken a vow of poverty as a nun, worked as a principal at St. James Catholic School in Torrance for 28 years and allegedly embezzled the funds for 10 years until her retirement in 2018.
Similar articles were published by the Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and Unilad.co.uk. Those reports were accurate, and we are issuing a rating of "True."
In June 2021, Mary Margaret Kreuper, a Catholic nun in the Los Angeles congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. District Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, whereby she committed to pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, and admitted taking part in a 10-year scheme to defraud St. James' Catholic School, an elementary school in Torrance, California, where she had served as principal for 28 years, to the amount of $835,000.
Kreuper signed the plea agreement, which Snopes has obtained and which can be read in full here, on June 2, 2021. In doing so, she agreed to plead guilty to:
- One count of wire fraud (U.S. Code Title 18, Section 1343), which carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, three years' supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 or double the monetary gain involved in the case, which was $835,000
- One count of money laundering [U.S. Code Title 18, Section 1956 (a)(1)(B)], which carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 or double the value of the money laundered, which was $6,000.
The money laundering charge relates to an episode in 2017, in which Kreuper improperly deposited checks from parents of pupils at the school into a convent bank account, rather than the school's bank account, then later used the convent account to write a $6,000 check to another unnamed person who subsequently cashed the check and gave Kreuper $6,000 in cash "so she could gamble in Nevada."
Although, formally speaking, Kreuper could face a punishment of up to 40 years in prison, it's unlikely she will receive such a long sentence. This is because, as part of the plea deal, the prosecutors have agreed to recommend to the court an "offense level" of 25 for Kreuper's crimes, and will further advise the court to reduce that to 23, or even 22. If Kreuper has no prior criminal history, under federal sentencing guidelines the sentencing range should be between 41 and 57 months (between around three-and-a-half and five years), though the court will have the final say in her punishment.
Kreuper retired as principal of St. James' Catholic School in 2018, after holding that position for 28 years. In December of that year, fraud allegations emerged against her and another nun, Sister Lana Chang, who had taught at the school.
At the time, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet imposed restrictions on the two women, writing in a news release that:
"The two Sisters are removed from all public ministry. They have been removed from their residence, placed in a religious house under the supervision of community leadership, and their freedom of movement is confined."
A spokesperson for the order confirmed for Snopes that, as of June 9, 2021, Kreuper was still a member of the Los Angeles congregation, but the restrictions against her remained in place, and she was no longer involved in any public ministry.