Posted on 06/29/2013 1:58:39 PM PDT by Lorianne
Today, District Judge Philip Reinhard sentenced former City of Dixon, IL Comptroller Rita Crundwell (60) to 19 1/2 years (235 months) in prison for diverting $53 million from city coffers to her own benefit … one of those benefits was buying horses …. 400 of them at the time of her arrest.
Rita Crundwell had to be one of the most trusted people on Dixon, IL’s payroll. She started working for the finance department for the City of Dixon, IL while still in high school in 1970. In 1983, she was appointed as the comptroller/treasurer … seven years later she would begin her scheme that would span 22 years. The initial thefts started out small, amounting to $181,000 in 1991. By 2008, Crundwell’s thefts resulted in a diversion of $5.8 million for that year alone, also the height of the financial crisis. All the while, Crundwell not only participated in budget meetings for the city with other City Council members, but she voiced a need for Dixon to make spending cuts due to a lack of sufficient funds. Her horse business thrived. The government in a motion to the court stated that Crundwell and her horses won numerous awards at national Quarter Horse competitions including being named the leading owner by the American Quarter Horse Association for eight consecutive years prior to her arrest.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Been following this case as it’s close to home.
Good! Sadly, they didn’t just hang her!
Seriously, she must’ve really had them bamboozled, as that’s a LOT of money to go missing from a relatively small town!
Also - kinda stoopid of them to let her run the show all those years - obviously with no checks or balances.
She would’ve made a GREAT CongressCritter, though, LOL!
I suspect that a lot of this kind of thing goes on all across the country.
Too many people watching American Idol instead of keeping a hawk-eye on their elected officials.
There is something about this story that does not add up (no pun intended). Dixon, Illinois is a small city with a population of just over 15,000 people. I can see someone stealing a few thousand dollars a year-but $100,000 at first and then one year $2.5 million. How could one person steal $2.5 million dollars-where were the auditors?
This just does not make sense. Oh and no one noticed that this woman on her salary owned 400 horses?
Yup, she is a democrap. Fun trying to google a LSM source that says that, though. Was going to link one, but the best candidate on 3 pages of google hits was DU, and I won’t link them.
Same here, even closer....but c’mon...
With budgets the way they are in a city this size, how in the world could someone NOT know? I’ve never been able to understand this but I’m glad she’ll be going away for a long time. They hung horse thieves, so why not hang those who thieve to buy horses? Seems like pretty much the same thing!
What the heck kind of taxes were the people in that town paying? They must all be furious that she took their money and kept so much of it for herself.
Just more government thievery. Nothing new.
That is 2.7 million dollars a year. At that rate Obama campaign Bundler John Corrazone should spend Five Thousand Five Hundred and Eighteen years behind bars.
But, he walks free.
The moral of this story, is don’t steal from the Chicago Mob’s turf.
Not unusual at all for small town elected officials to put complete trust in city employees. And city employees frequently have statewide or larger organizations that teach members how to bamboozle elected officials.
In most states, a state auditor would double-check city finances. I would imagine in corrupt Illinois this wouldn’t be a high priority, or was just a matter of bribery.
The scam was massive. In 2012 she scammed over half the city’s spending:
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2012/Rita-Crundwell-and-the-Dixon-Embezzlement/
I heard they had to build another prison just to hold all the crooked politicians being spawned in Illinois.
Pray that Rahm is next!
I understand about the trust part, but as you noted she took
half of the funds for 2012 and no one noticed?
If she collected the money, deposited the money, and disbursed the money, I could see being able to take something but half?
Bump for link, later. :)
You can really imagine when three controlling empolyees get together and steal funds!
We had a County Judge that had better equipment than the County Road Department.
Page 5 of the chicagomag link explains it. She shuffled money in and out of the Illinois Fund, a money market mutual fund open to Illinois municipalities. I think all states have such group funds for cities. Plenty of room for scams.
Also, states and feds meddle in city affairs. Easy to claim money is due from them.
Local auditors have shut up. They’re getting a good look.
Should be FReepers with small-town political and accounting experience. I’m looking forward to their reactions.
In other words, inside her brain she's psycho, outside she appears normal.
Being a comptroller she knew how to conceal her peculations....and she was cunning enough to project an honest and personable persona.
Fascinating stuff.
Since she's a comptroller will the city let her investigate herself like Holder is going to investigate himself in what has to be one of the all-time political absurdities in our country's history?
Leni
Aw, c'mon Wilbur, pleeese don't send me to th' glue factory..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.