An 80-year-old nun travels to Las Vegas with hundreds of thousands of dollars. A California court has now announced the verdict.
Los Angeles – One of the tenets of most religious sisters and nuns is not to own personal belongings. A nun in the USA* seems to have seen these rules more as a guide than as a requirement. She traveled to Las Vegas with hundreds of thousands of dollars. But that’s not all.
The funds were, of all things, donations and funding for a Catholic elementary school in California. The nun was the leader there for several years. A court has now decided on her sentence.
Nun travels to Las Vegas with debt money: ‘I have sinned’
A US state court sentenced the nun to one year and one day, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday (02/07/2022, local time). “I sinned, I broke the law and I have no excuse,” the now 80-year-old said remorsefully at the trial broadcast online. When she entered the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet over 60 years ago, she took a vow of poverty.
Shortly after her retirement in 2018, an inspection of accounts revealed that the longtime principal of St. James Catholic School in Torrance had embezzled tuition and donations totaling $835,000 (approximately €730,000) over a period of ten years . According to the newspaper, she had spent the money gambling in Las Vegas with another nun – also a teacher. As a cover-up, she falsified the account books.
Nun embezzles school fees: court announces verdict
Judge Otis D. Wright II told the LA Times that he struggled to decide what was the right sentence. The offenses of money laundering and fraud for which the nun was charged in June 2021 could have been punished with up to 40 years in prison. However, during her 62 years as a nun, she was “an excellent teacher,” according to Wright.
That’s why he couldn’t bring himself to put her in prison for two years because of this one “worst thing she’s done in her whole life”. That’s what the prosecutor asked for. (slo/dpa/afp) *fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
List of rubrics: © Valentine Chapuis/dpa
