Going on casino junkets and trips, the school teacher and principal worked in tandem to defraud the parents by convincing them the school was operating on a shoestring budget, while they were living the high life.

Finally came to light as the two were retiring, when a formal audit took place.

"Two nuns at a Catholic church in Southern California are suspected of embezzling up to $500,000 in school funds, allegedly using some of the money to go on trips and gamble at casinos, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles told ABC News....

Both Kreuper, the school principal, and Chang, a teacher, retired earlier this year, according to The Press-Telegram. A standard audit procedure was initiated about six months ago, ahead of Kreuper's retirement after 28 years of working at the school, the local newspaper reported.

Around that time, school staff noticed that a check made out to the school had been deposited into a different bank account after a family happened to request a copy of the check, according to The Press-Telegram. Kreuper then became "very nervous and very anxious" about the financial review and requested that staff alert records, and Meyers alerted an archdiocese internal auditor performing the review that "something was off," Meyers said at the alumni meeting.

The auditor later confirmed Meyers' suspicions, he said at the alumni meeting. In addition, a tip was made to an archdiocese ethics hotline, The Press-Telegram reported.

"They used the account as their personal account," an attorney for the archdiocese said during the alumni meeting, adding that they had a "pattern" of going on trips and to casinos, according to the local newspaper."

Will they go first to Purgatory, or directly to Jail ? ;-)

https://abcnews.go.com/US/nuns-misappropriated-500k-school-funds-spending-gambling-trips/story?id=59715869

Utah is the Vatican City of mortgage, insurance, and securities fraud.

Certainly we would have heard of some massive embezzlement cases of LDS coffers.

Oh, wait. Nevermind. Obviously LDS Inc could never be embezzled due to the magical power of priesthood discernment.

Wow.
The church response is almost more anger-inducing than the actual crime...

"Although Meyers initially wrote in his letter that the Archdiocese did not wish to pursue criminal proceedings, the spokesperson for the archdiocese told ABC News Sunday that it plans on pursuing the matter as a criminal case now that the investigation has deepened."

So initially they were just going to sweep it under the rug, like so many other cases of criminal wrongdoing in a church. I wonder what "deepened" in the investigation that changed their mind? Could it be that the embezzlement became public?

"The accused nuns feel a "deep remorse" for their actions and are asking for "forgiveness and prayers," Meyers wrote in his letter to parents."

Sure they do. They stole money from church/children for years, but now they feel "deep remorse." 'Cause they got caught.

"No student or program has "suffered any loss of educational resources, opportunities, or innovations" as a result of the misappropriation of funds, Meyers wrote, emphasizing to parents that their children's education "has not and will not be affected by these events.""

Right. Half a million dollars (at least) of school funds is missing, and was never used to pay for their education, but no students were affected. Right.
Liar.

In the catholic church, the priests get retirement. The nuns do not. They serve for food and board and when they retire, they either go to the cloister or depend on the generosity and charity of others. They will support the child abusing priests at various retirement centers for priests with nuns doing the food prep, etc while nuns live shoved several in 1 apartment.
I think its great that they got 1/2 a million off the school.

Anon 3 Wrote:
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> In the catholic church, the priests get
> retirement.

Only secular priests, as they do not make a vow of poverty.
Religious priests on the other hand, do not get retirement, as they have made a vow of poverty. It goes with their joining their religious order.

These sisters were not nuns. Not sure if they made a vow of poverty or not? Not sure what community they belonged to.

What's a "secular" priest and a "religious" priest. All the Catholic priests I know of served in a diocese, retired, then got a pension.

MCR Wrote:
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> What's a "secular" priest and a "religious"
> priest. All the Catholic priests I know of served
> in a diocese, retired, then got a pension.


Diocesen priests are secular priest.
A religious (or "regular" priest) are part of a religious order. IE Fransican, Dominican, Benedictian, Jesuit among others

The sisters were nuns of St. Joseph who set up and teach catholic schools. There used to be that they could retire as cloister nuns, but the church no longer support cloister nuns as they no longer support teaching or medical nuns in retirement.

There is a charity that goes to theaters called Sat night catechism where nuns stand in the lobby collecting funds for nuns like this. Otherwise they depend on the community or starve. A group of 4 of them depended on the bishops storehouse in one ward I was in.
In a church where they spend millions on sex abuse cases...
They do not take a vow of poverty like cloister nuns

Cloister nuns take a vow of poverty that is a vow of destitution. They deped on the outside world ad their gardens for food... or their families.
A vow of poverty for a techig nun is that they have all thigs in commo. No one has more tha the other. Its ot a vow of destitution or starvation.

Some nuns are self-supporting and hold regular jobs in human services, i.e. teacher, social worker, or nurse. They would get whatever retirement benefits that are available to any other worker in those fields.

Religious people are not always trustworthy.

Cheryl Wrote:
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> Religious people are not always trustworthy.


All the way back to Judas Iscariot, even.

This is going on too much with organized religion.Its even worse because people trust them and don’t expect this.
It probably proves that a lot of people who claim to be religious aren’t, like some of these big mega churches .
If they really believed what they preached, they wouldn’t be stealing, lying, cheating, etc , because they would be afraid of being punished by what ever they claim to believe in, like going to hell, or whatever.

It's unclear whether they're going to spend any jail time, but will be prosecuted. As for restitution, how are they going to pay all that money back to those children and their parents?

They're only sorry they were caught. If not for the audit, they were going to sail into the sunset.

The principal at my children's school was arrested for stealing from the school's petty cash fund after falsely accusing another school employee of doing the same. Money kept disappearing from the vault, and she would pin it on this other person.

So a hidden video was placed in the front office. Lo and behold, it was the principal herself. What a hack ! She was making more than $80,000 a year then, which was more than any of the other admin or school teachers were paid. And still, she was stealing a few hundred at a time from the petty cash fund - and then lying about it. She deserved to get caught, arrested, and subsequently demoted to unemployed.

I remember pulling a car over for running a red light, years (and year!) ago. Two nuns were in the front, in their hip, "modern" garb. I started writing a ticket. My partner paid little attention, until he saw me write the fine in, instead of checking "warning."

"What! you're hitting a nun with a money ticket!" he said, outraged.
"What if she hit another car or somebody in the intersection?" I answered. "Besides, I'm not Catholic."
It was a pretty awkward shift from then on.

--"Officer Fiendly"

Okay, I would've cut those nuns some slack too.

A warning would've sufficed IMHO. They live on next to nothing, if they're living honestly that is.

On the other hand, their car insurance (and premium hit) would be covered by their order or diocese. I wrote it to make the point that actions have consequences.

Not where I live.

There is an order (convent) of Hungarian nuns who live on only one sister's social security income of $13,000 a year for time she worked in the states as a social worker. That is all they have to live on (there are five or six of them, all aged.)

They made a vow of poverty when they became nuns. And so it has been their lifetime vocation.

What do you mean not where you live?

Do you mean that actions don't have consequences where you live?

Or that the car insurance of a dioceses owned car isn't paid for by the diocese where you live. And if the car isn't owned by the diocese but instead by the collective group of Hungarian nuns that live off of $13,000 a year, why are they exempt from paying insurance if they bought the car and are liable for what happens from or to the car?

Amyjo Wrote:
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> Not where I live.
>
> There is an order (convent) of Hungarian nuns who
> live on only one sister's social security income
> of $13,000 a year for time she worked in the
> states as a social worker. That is all they have
> to live on (there are five or six of them, all
> aged.)
>
> They made a vow of poverty when they became nuns.
> And so it has been their lifetime vocation.

(The following is not a justification for the embezzlement)

AmyJoy you bring up an important distinction.

The women in the news story aren't technically "nuns". They are, however, sisters.

All nuns are sisters, but not all sisters are nuns.

Nuns are cloistered, like the ones you mention in the convent near you. They all make a vow of poverty.

Sisters, on the other hand, are not cloistered, and may or may have not taken a vow of poverty, depending on their community.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2018 06:38PM by angela.

Amyjo Wrote:
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> A warning would've sufficed IMHO. They live on
> next to nothing, if they're living honestly that
> is.

So equal treatment under the law only applies to people who can afford it?

Or do you get a ticket if you're poor and black (or Hispanic), but not if you're poor and a nun?

Me, I say bravo, caffiend.

Have you never had a cop cut you a break?

What would it take for Caffiend to cut someone a break during his career?

There are such cops with the occasional bleeding heart, who use their judgment call when writing tickets.

It is discretionary at least some of the time. It's not all about making quotas.

I've had a cop cut me a break.

But that's not the point Hie is making.

A nun should gladly take the ticket rather than accept the break that wasn't being given to a black or Hispanic man.

And my point was the cop has a choice.

It isn't about the letter of the law. It's the spirit that counts.

I've known cops who write money tickets on almost everybody, and cops who write only warnings, saying, "It's the easiest way to get a 'tab' (citizen complaint), and it's just not worth it."

I wrote a lot of tickets, kind of specialized in traffic enforcement. I'd say 40-45% were "money tickets" (fines), a comparable amount warnings, and the remainder a mix of court summons and arrests. My decision to write money or warning was a subjective evaluation, and involved:

*how serious (risky) was the violation? (Like running a red light as pedestrians were stepping off the curb)
*other issues like seat belt use
*attitude. I don't mind a person arguing the situation, up to a point, but don't disrespect me, claim racism, or drop a politician's name. Don't stick a phone in my face and say "I'm recording you." You have the right, but I've got a pen in my hand.Believe me, the appeals judge won't be impressed.
*Some locations needed serious enforcement, and I wrote more money tickets there
*Some violations ALWAYS got a fine, such as unsecured child or causing an accident.

I could, and did on occasion, hit somebody really hard, compounding vehicle and "moving" violations, such as checking tail lights, tire tread, wiper blades, all sorts of things.

Amyjo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And my point was the cop has a choice.
>
> It isn't about the letter of the law. It's the
> spirit that counts.

If you give a break to poor religious people, but not to poor regular people, you're ignoring both the spirit and the letter of the law.
Our constitution says the law applies equally to everyone. It's pretty simple. And very equitable.

No classes and students were harmed by the isolated actions of a few remorseful but repentant sinners.

Where have we heard that one before?

Are they fucking stupid?

It is this type of attitude that resulted in the continued abuse of thousands of children.

I don't expect people who pursue religious vocations to be perfect, but I do expect a general adherence to good ethics and honest behavior.

I'll tell another story that I heard recently. Catholic schools in my neck of the woods don't pay their teachers all that well. I call teaching jobs like that "married" jobs -- maybe you would take the job as a second income in the household. But you can't support yourself on them.

A man that I know was telling me about his wife. She was a classroom teacher in a Catholic school for many years. Last year the diocese decreed that the school needed a teacher in a certain ancillary position. So she was told in no uncertain terms that she would have to be placed in that job whether she liked it or not. She hated it. After one year, she requested to go back to the classroom. She was told no problem, but she would have to reapply for her old job. By reapplying, they made her take a $7K pay cut.

So much for Catholic "ethics." I'm at the point where I no longer feel that those with religious vocations deserve automatic respect and a presumption of good will. They appear to be no better than the rest of us.

Clergy like doctors and lawyers, et al, are held to the higher ethical standards of their profession than the average lay person.

Which is also why when one of them falls from the pedestal it's momentous.

Since these two women had been fleecing the school for years, it wasn't a momentary lapse of judgment. It was calculated and cunning.

I don't care if they live on very little money. THEY CHOSE TO BE NUNS. I didn't make them. The church didn't make them.

They used money that should have been going to CHILDREN.

I wouldn't give them a pass if it wasn't money for kids. I'd go to prison for it. Why do they get a pass?

“You two are such a disappointing pair. I prayed so hard for you. It saddens and hurts me to think that the two boys I raised to believe in The Ten Commandments have returned to me as thieves, with filthy mouths and bad attitudes! GET OUT, and DON'T COME BACK...until you've redeemed yourselves.”

“ I guess you’re really up s**t creek”
“ Hey man, you can’t talj to nuns like that”
One of my favourite movies!!!

E h and every time major wins occurred, these two probably gave to the poor in secrecy. Shame on any who judge without a book or movie revealing the whole truth.

The nuns had no right to take the money. If they gave some back, they were doing it in an illegal underhanded way.

That's like mormons who would steal fast offerings but pay a little extra tithing or do extra bathroom scrubbing and think that makes them honest.

Oh please. The last thing we need are religious Robin Hoods running around.


It's wrong for people to assume someone is a good person because they dress up in religious garb and blab about Jesus. Many of them are delusional parasites as we discover over and over. People are conditioned to give them the benefit of the doubt beyond what they would assume about other people.

Mormon Nomore Wrote:
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> E h and every time major wins occurred, these two
> probably gave to the poor in secrecy. Shame on any
> who judge without a book or movie revealing the
> whole truth.

That "judge not" thing comes from some book I don't believe in or follow.
And anyway, the full saying is "judge not, lest ye be judged."

I'll judge these women -- they're disgusting thieves. Whether they gave some money in secret or not.
And I'll taking judging right back...I've never embezzled money from a school that was donated to educate kids. I'm perfectly happy to have all of us judged. Aren't you?

The principal one, Kreuper resembles Large Marge from the Pee Wee Herman movie

Oh, she does, lol.

This will be made into a movie very, very soon.

Who should benefit from the proceeds?

Will the nuns profit from selling the movie rights? Or the parents who were ripped off (and their children?)

It was my idea, so I should benefit. And you, too. 50/50. ;o))