Nun, 63, spared jail time for $850G theft from Iona

Nun, 63, spared jail time for $850G theft from Iona
Written by Jonathan Bandler

A nun who stole more than $850,000 from Iona College to fund a gambling addiction while she was in charge of the school's finances was spared incarceration today and ordered to perform 2,000 hours of community service.

At her sentencing in Manhattan federal court, Sister Marie Thornton, 63, said she was deeply sorry for her crime and for the embarrassment she caused her religious order, family and friends.

"Somehow the words 'I'm sorry' fall short," she told U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood. "They don't convey the gut-wrenching sorrow I feel all day, every day."

She said she was particularly pained to have harmed "the institution I loved ... and gave my all to."

Thornton, known as "Sister Susie," was fired as vice president of finance in 2009 when school officials learned of the embezzlement.

But they never contacted law enforcement. The federal probe was launched after the school revealed the missing money — without naming Thornton — in its tax filings last year.

Thornton stole the money over 10 years by using a school credit card for personal expenses and getting reimbursed by the schoolfor phony invoices.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Cohen said the theft was uncovered by an employee who realized that a fax number on a vendor's invoice was a number at the college.

Sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of 2 1/2 to 3 years and Cohen argued for some incarceration, calling Thornton's crime an "ongoing, systematic, very extensive fraud."

The judge, however, said it appeared Thornton had been rehabilitated through extensive treatment for her addiction and that she has already been punished enough by the strict oversight she must endure from her religious order in Philadelphia.

Thornton was arrested a years ago and pleaded guilty in March. Her sentencing was postponed several times at the defense's request, including twice for medical reasons as she had cataract surgery and a double-hip replacement over the summer.

Thornton was the assistant to Brother James Liguori, Iona's president, before her promotion to the school's top financial position.

Iona officials have insisted that safeguards were put in place once the theft was discovered to prevent similar occurrences.

The college recovered $500,000 through its insurance. Wood ordered Thornton to repay the balance of what she took, but there was little chance she could raise that much.
Cohen said Iona was not interested in further repayment.

When Wood asked whether that was out of sorrow and pity for the defendant, Cohen said it was.

Thornton returned to her religious order, the Sisters of St. Joseph, in Philadelphia after she was fired. Officials there have said that the order was not involved in any financial restitution.