The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is now planning to support criminal charges against two longtime nuns accused of embezzling money from St. James Catholic School in Torrance.
The archdiocese decided to pursue the charges after scrutiny from the public when it was revealed Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang embezzled as much as $500,000 to use on trips and gambling at casinos.
The scheme goes back at least 10 years but did not surface until this year when the sisters retired from the school. When the archdiocese launched an internal investigation, the nuns admitted their wrongs and expressed remorse. The archdiocese did not initially want to press charges.
However, Torrance Sgt. Ronald Harris said officials from the archdiocese met with detectives on Thursday and admitted they now want the case prosecuted.
Current and past parents of students at the school say they have been going through years of bank records in the days since the scandal was revealed. They are looking for checks that were deposited into an account the nuns used as a "personal account."
One mother whose children once attended St. James said she identified $45,000 in tuition checks deposited into the suspicious account, according to the Daily Breeze.
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