Two Awesome Nuns Embezzled $500K From Their Catholic School And Gambled It Away In Vegas
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (CBSDFW.COM/CBS Local) – Two longtime nuns at St. James Catholic School in Torrance allegedly embezzled as much as $500,000 in tuition, fees and donations, perhaps spending some of the money on trips and gambling at casinos while telling parents the school was operating on a shoestring budget, officials and parents told the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Bank records show Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Lang were embezzling from the school for at least 10 years, the Press-Telegram reports.
Kreuper, who retired as the school’s principal earlier in 2018, handled all tuition checks and fees. She allegedly withheld some checks and deposited them into a secret account only she and Chang were aware of.
While investigators found the two gave some of the stolen money back to the school, the rest was used for their “personal gain.”
They kept up the charade, telling parents that the school was operating on a tight budget, all the while using the embezzled funds for lavish vacations and trips to the casino.
Folks, we have our headline of the year and it is maybe my favorite story of all-time. I don’t want, I NEED to have a beer or fifteen with these two ladies and shoot the shit. If I was in some fucked up family situation where religion was forced upon me and I was given no choice but to be a monk/nun (whatever it is) it would most certainly end like this. This is basically what Bradley Cooper does in the Hangover with the kids’ field trip money, except these two were doing this for TEN YEARS. I remember watching that movie and being like “yeah I can’t be a teacher because I would just scam the kids into something if I ever went down big to my bookie one week.” Well these two took that idea to new heights, doing this for a decade. They stole tuition money and told parents everyone was under a tight budget, then went to Vegas to hit the tables. Legendary.
My question is how does something like this go unnoticed by other nuns for TEN YEARS? No one else noticed that Sister Mary and Sister Lana were going to tropical islands and Vegas every other month, meanwhile Father Pat had to ref basketball games on the side just to make ends meet? This is on the rest of the nuns as much as it is on Lana and Mary. That’s probably why no one is pressing charges and a simply sorry was good enough to let bygones be bygones.
The report claims the archdiocese and the church are not pursuing criminal charges after the nuns said they’re sorry.