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TWO CATHOLIC SCHOOL nuns in California have admitted to embezzling about $500,000, and using the funds over the years for travel and gambling in Las Vegas, their order said yesterday.
Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, who are said to be best friends, took the money from tuition, fees and donations at St James Catholic School in Torrance, south of Los Angeles.
“We do know that they had a pattern of going on trips. We do know they had a pattern of going to casinos, and the reality is, they used the account as their personal account,” an attorney for the school told parents and alumni at a recent meeting, the Press-Telegram reported.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said the missing money was discovered during a routine audit and it is believed the nuns operated their scheme over at least a decade.
Kreuper was principal at the school for 29 years until her retirement earlier this year. Chang was a teacher for 20 years and she also retired this year.
“Our community is concerned and saddened by this situation and regret any injury to our long relationship with the families of the school,” the Sister of St Joseph of Carondelet, the nuns’ order, said in a statement sent to AFP.
The Sisters of St Joseph both desire and intend to make complete restitution to St James School.
‘Deep remorse’
Parents were informed about the nuns’ misdeeds in a 28 November letter from the school’s pastor, Monsignor Michael Meyers.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, states that Kreuper and Chang had taken a “substantial” amount of school funds for their personal use and the matter was uncovered during an audit conducted after Kreuper’s retirement.
“Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Lana have expressed to me and asked that I convey to you, the deep remorse they each feel for their actions and ask for your forgiveness and prayers,” Meyers wrote.
They and their order pray that you have not lost trust or faith in the educators and administrators of the school.
He added that no other school staff were implicated in the theft and that police had been alerted.
Meyers said the school did not wish to pursue criminal proceedings against the pair, who spent decades as students’ moral enforcers.
However, Adrian Alarcon, the head of media relations for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, told AFP that the Archdiocese didn’t want to just let the matter drop and planned to “become a complaining party.”
The nuns allegedly got away with their crime by depositing some checks made out to the school for tuition and other fees into a bank account different than the one used by the school.
Meyers told parents in his letter that the two Sisters were cooperating with an investigation to determine the full amount of misappropriated funds.
“I want to assure you that the investigation has disclosed that, notwithstanding this misappropriation, no student or program at St James has suffered any loss of educational resources, opportunities, or innovations,” he added. “In sum, the education of your children has not and will not be affected by these events.”
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We have a bank cartel, a duopoly of media, an energy providers oligopoly, and an insurance cartel.
And to top it off, we have a coalition government that have run the country for 100 years, and will do nothing about any of it!
Time to change how we vote folks!
@Franklin Roosevelt: ? Main thing is they are all well educated.
@Franklin Roosevelt:
The only alternative is the useless left and even more useless left leaning independents
@Franklin Roosevelt: well said franklin sums it up in a nut shell .
@John the Baptist: who is this useless left that you speak of and what policies of theirs do you not like?
Very easy to criticize without offering a useful alternative.
@John the Baptist: Yeah, we need to vote SF! A terrorist organisation would do some changes alright!
@John the Baptist: anything to back up your sweeping statement or are you just trash talking anyone who’s not a conservative? looking for some factual argument
@Andy K: ugh, this boring troll.
Yeah, Pearse Doherty, an engineering school dropout, is a terrorist.
And Mary Lou, a former research and consultant, is also a terrorist.
Gimme a break.
Their policies are far better than any pathetic proposals by FFG.
You can’t criticize their policies, so you talk bullsh*t.
@Andy K: YAWN.
@Franklin Roosevelt: they advocate open borders…they would ruin this country if in power on that issue alone.
@John the Baptist: That’s a cop out. if they had the TD’s to make it past the line. they would relish it. corbyn in the labour party has the same ideas as our lefties.
@Franklin Roosevelt: Thing is we don’t have an alternative, Left or right!!!!! Despite the daily nonsense you write about SF they have too much baggage and their time in government in the North wouldn’t fill you with much enthusiasm.
They asked for whistle blowers to come forward. Are they out of their fooking mind. What whistleblower will stick their head above the parapet in this country, where the guards and government will come after you.
Another outstanding investigation into the bleeding obvious, Returning a result that black is indeed white and Ian Pasley was Catholic.
Of course their is no cartel whoever came up with such a suggestion A very honest bunch of lads in the banking industry wouldnt tell a lie or steal your money and its regulated by another bunch of lovely lads and when it all goes bang again we wont have to bail them out honeatly.
This is the gospel according to
Eddie Hobbs.
@Joe Bloggs: No your right joe, you would read it in the Irish Times, where all the educated go to be further brainwashed.
No hard evidence ,come on we are talking about the banks ,ask little seany ,another soft landing for the financial services industry .what else could one expect in the land of the gombeens .
There watchdogs are a bunch of stevie wonders then.
The state of the country and the tracker mortgage fiasco would bed to disagree.
Quite a poor watchdog. They want their stomach scratched as the bankers fleece the country
@Skinnerbot: Yes the UK banks offering 100% house loans and wrecking our banking system are gone. These banks were welcomed by the media when they arrived and praised for breaking the prudent banking practiced by our banks.
Ah that’s grand so… after all when did an arm of the Irish state ever ever ever get it wrong about our fabled wank …sorry Banking System
Whats her backround?
Somebody gave that watchdog a big juicy steak I’d say.
Maybe the onus should be on the banks to prove they are not a cartel. If it looks like a duck etc…
I think that the watchdog needs their own watchdog. I never saw an more useless bunch in my life.
It’s not a banking cartel it is an upgraded hole in the gang with Armani suits
Someone needs to get the EU in with some more of those Early Morning Competition Raids. My car insurance has gone down €400 since that.
Any evidence of competition among Banks..
There’s no evidence of anything in this country. Either they are very good at hiding it or someone is not looking in the right places.
Wouldn’t half make one wonder!
With the price of Car Insurance, I’m more concerned about collusion in the Insurance
industry. My car insurance in Ireland is E1200 per year while similar cover for my similar
car in Australia is $405 AUD (E267). Surely I’m not 4 times the risk in Ireland!
I travel about 5000 klms/year in Ireland and about 11000 klms/year in Aus.
Just write to your TD & express concern.
It’s not a banking cartel it’s an upgraded hole in the wall gang in Armani suits
If it looks like a duck,
Walks like a duck,
And quacks like a duck,
It’s a duck!
If we have to engage the services of a high powered investigative committee to tell us that it’s actually something called “not a duck”, then thats OK too!
But it’s still a DUCK!
CCPC looked up every tree in North County Dublin.
Laughing at the CCPC.
It can arrive at conclusions without conducting a intensive investigation.
NAMA
LOL
This is coming from a regulator that said we would have a soft landing.
Gangsters in suits,
There’s simply not enough banks to form a cartel
@Limón Madrugada: How many banks would we need then ?
Lol lol lol lol
F#%k banks, buy Bitcoin.
Dead right, glad that’s put to bed.
I thought it was called the Troika and the IMF?
No Shit, Batman!?!
I think the watchdog needs a guide dog
have your say