The Rita Crundwell story made its film debut on August 9th. Check your local listings for “All The Queen’s Horses”. Click on the play button above to see the official trailer for “All The Queen’s Horses”.
Who is Rita Crundwell and what is the film all about?
Rita A. Crundwell (born January 10, 1953) was the appointed comptroller and treasurer of Dixon, Illinois, from 1983 to 2012, and the admitted operator of what is believed to be the largest municipal fraud in American history. She was fired in April 2012 after it was revealed that she had embezzled $53.7 million from the city over 22 years to support her championship American Quarter Horse breeding operation. She pleaded guilty to her crimes and was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison.
Crundwell’s Quarter Horse breeding operation, RC Quarter Horses, was one of the best-known in the country; her horses won 52 world championships and she was named the leading owner by the American Quarter Horse Association for eight consecutive years prior to her arrest.
How did she do it?
On December 8, 1990, Crundwell opened a secret bank account named RSCDA (Reserve Sewer Capital Development Account), making it appear to be a city account. She was the only signatory. She would have money deposited into another account called the Capital Development Fund, create false state invoices, and then write checks from the fund payable to “Treasurer,” which she would deposit into the RSCDA account. According to federal investigators, this relatively uncomplicated scheme continued for 22 years.
On average, Crundwell stole $5 million per year from the city. In 1991, she stole $181,000, while in 2008 alone she managed to embezzle $5.8 million. She not only used the money to finance her Quarter Horse operation, but also to support a lifestyle well beyond her $80,000 city salary. Among other things, she bought several cars, a second house and a million-dollar motorhome.
Crundwell covered up her embezzlement by claiming the city’s frequent budget shortfalls were due to the state being late in paying the city its share of tax revenue. She forced city departments to make drastic service cuts in order to keep the budget within reason. As a result, employees went two years or more without raises and the police department couldn’t get new radios. The most visible effect, however, was on street maintenance. The city was forced to lay off three of its nine street repair workers and cut the rate of maintenance. In the decade prior to Crundwell’s arrest, only 65 blocks of road were repaired or replaced.
For most of Crundwell’s tenure, residents trusted her despite the city’s perilous economic conditions. They assumed that either she inherited wealth and/or that her award-winning quarter horse breeding business was profitable in its own right. By the late 2000s, with the financial crisis and economic recession, as city maintenance and equipment suffered, there were some suspicions that she was stealing money, which went as high as Mayor James G. Burke. However, the city’s outside auditors, Clifton Gunderson (now CliftonLarsonAllen after merging with LarsonAllen in 2012) and local accountant Sam Card, dismissed his concerns, as they presumed that Crundwell was honest and signed off on Crundwell’s financial statements annually without concern. For small American cities similar to Dixon, lack of sufficient outside audits was a recurring problem, as third-party auditors at best could only give limited attention. For most of her tenure as comptroller, Crundwell had nearly complete control over the city’s accounts, while few if any city employees had access to the city financial statements.
How did she get caught?
In the fall of 2011, while Crundwell was on an extended vacation, city clerk Kathe Swanson, who served as acting comptroller in Crundwell’s absence, discovered the account and many checks written on it. Swanson suspected that this was not a legitimate city account, and brought the information to Burke, who contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The fraud continued for six more months, as Burke and Swanson (whose payroll was controlled by Crundwell) had to remain silent while the FBI built up their case.
Crundwell arrived for work on April 17, 2012 to find FBI agents waiting for her. She was arrested later that day and indicted by a federal grand jury for embezzling $30 million from the city during the previous six years. She was charged with one count of wire fraud and released on $4,500 bail the next day. On May 2, 2012, a superseding indictment charged her with embezzling $53 million over the prior 22 years.
Rita Crundwell is now in prison and is scheduled for release in March 2030.
Source: Wikipedia.com
It’s quite a story. If you get a chance to see the documentary, “All The Queen’s Horses“, make sure to check it out.
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