Rita Crundwell (original) (raw)

Rita A. Crundwell (née Humphrey; born January 10, 1953) is the former 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 U.S. history. She was fired in April 2012 after the discovery that she had embezzled $53.7 million from the city of Dixon for over 22 years to support her lavish and luxurious lifestyle and her championship American Quarter Horse breeding operation. Crundwell pleaded guilty to her crimes and was sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison. She spent less than 8+1⁄2 years (43% of her sentence) in prison before being released in mid-2021 to a house confinement at her brother's 80 acres (32 ha) farm in Dixon.