L.A. nun to plead guilty to stealing $800,000 from school to pay for gambling habit

A Los Angeles nun who took a vow of poverty has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges for stealing more than $800,000 to pay for a gambling habit, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, of Los Angeles was charged Tuesday with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Prosecutors said that in a plea agreement also filed Tuesday, the now-retired nun acknowledged that over a decade ending in 2018, she embezzled about $835,000 in donations, tuition and fee money from St. James Catholic School in the L.A. suburb of Torrance.

Kreuper, who was the school principal for 28 years, “controlled accounts at a credit union, including a savings account for the school and one established to pay the living expenses of the nuns employed by the school," the U.S. attorney's office said.