A 79-year-old Los Angeles-area nun has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering after stealing $835,000 in donations, tuition and fees from a Catholic church and school over a ten year period to cover her gambling debts.
NBC News reports that prosecutors accepted a plea agreement from Mary Margaret Kreuper for stealing the money from St. James Catholic School in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance. Kreuper served as principal of the school for the last 28 years and controlled the school’s accounts at a credit union, which was supposed to pay for school expenses and living expenses for the nuns at the school.
Kreuper said she used the funds to pay off credit card bills she had run up as well as gambling debts she accrued at local casinos. She faces up to 40 years in prison, and an unknown number of Our Fathers and Hail Marys.