Betting nun charged with fraud

15-01-2011

A Catholic nun has been accused of stealing €655.813 at the school where she works. Marie Thornton is the ex-vice president of finance at a New York-based school. She is accused of creating fake bills to pay off private credit card invoices and costs.

Fraud

Thornton committed the fraud between 1999 – 2009. She gave up her job in 2009 and declared not guilty of embezzling the money. The Iona College in New Rochelle, New York enrolls approximately 5.000 students. Alumni and donors have criticized Iona officials as they failed to report the stolen funds to authorities. The college only reported the fraud in the tax filing of 2009.

Betting nun

The Iona College responded by stating that it put into practice improved fiscal supervision. Officials declared that they recuperated the majority of the stolen money. Ex-Iona basketball trainer Jeff Ruland revealed that the nun likes to gamble at Atlantic City-based venues. The first reports showed that she embezzled more than €930.000. Later, officials reported a corrected amount of more than  €655.813 after some miscalculations.