The city of Dixon (Illinois), with a population of 16,000, has long been known as the birthplace of former President Ronald Reagan. In 2012, it became infamous when it was revealed that one of its residents had defrauded the community of $53.7 million over 22 years.
Rita Crundwell he used his position as the city’s accountant and treasurer to embezzle money To fund his Quarter Horse breeding operation, make it big in the competitive horse world and create a luxurious home life, according to the Justice Department.
“Scam Goddess,” premiering Jan. 15 at 10 p.m. on Freeform and airing the next day on Hulu, follows host Laci Mosley as she meets people who witnessed the fallout after meeting Rita Crundwell and discovering her crimes.
Crundwell had decades to learn the intricacies of the city’s finances, having started working there as a teenager.
“She was going to be their runner while she was in high school. They said, Rita, here, take this, and she was going to run and come back,” said former Mayor Jim Dixon. “But at the same time, he was handling some books, so he was learning that skill.”
After graduating from high school, Crundwell landed a full-time job in the city and eventually landed a position he would use to his advantage.
“Before I became mayor, the consultant retired, and Rita was given the title of accountant without removing the title and authority from the treasurer,” Dixon said. “At that time, he had full control of all finances.”
Rita Crundwell, former accountant for the City of Dixon, Ill., stands aside as her attorney speaks briefly to the media after Crundwell pleaded guilty in federal court on Nov. 14, 2012 in Rockford, Ill. Crundwell stole $53 million in funds. .
Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/MCT via Getty Images, FILE
During this time he maintained a side hustle by showing horses, earning the admiration of the community.
“Rita got a lot of local publicity with the Quarter Horses and for all her shows and so forth. Every now and then there would be a story about Rita in the paper,” Dixon said. “He sold a Quarter Horse for $150,000. Must be a wonderful business.”
However, his salary of $80,000 as a city employee and the prizes he won in the horse world were not enough to finance that business and his lifestyle. He bought the $2.1 million RV in 2009, when Dixon was struggling in the midst of the global financial crisis.
Crundwell lived the life of a rock star, with a large farm and a nice house, which included custom-made furniture, a chandelier carved from old revolvers, custom tables and a floor with his initials. He had an RV, horse trailers, custom furniture and a vacation home in Florida.
Danny Langloss, Dixon’s city manager, noted that public works in the community were “severely neglected” during this period.
“We had people driving around in trucks with holes in the ground,” he said. “The projects could not be carried out because we did not have that money.”
This April 20, 2012 file photo shows Rita Crundwell’s horse ranch in Dixon, Ill.
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP, FILE
Because Dixon could not operate the pools while the city closed them, the defendant built a pool complete with a sauna.
Kathe Swanson, Dixon’s deputy treasurer, highlighted Crundwell’s penny pinching. When people retired, no one was hired to replace them and more work fell on Swanson.
“He left me dry,” he said. “And then when we had to pay the bills, he’d stand there and go through all the envelopes and say, ‘Pay this, don’t pay this. Pay this, don’t pay this.'”
More seriously, Swanson said Crundwell refused a request to renew emergency services.
“The police chief went to him and said, you know, we need a new radio system because there are dead spots in Dixon,” Swanson said. “And he said, ‘Sorry, we don’t have any money in the budget.'”
According to Langloss, Crundwell got away with it for so long because he is a “master manipulator”.
“He always made the people around him feel like the most important person in the room,” he said. “If you think about it, well, a lot of these people worked with him since he was 16 or 17 years old and he was an intern, and he turned a lot of heads with his work ethic, his personality, the way he could connect with people.”
As controller and treasurer, Crundwell opened a secret bank account in his own name in 1990. Once the account was opened, Langloss said he created fictitious invoices for large sums of money for road projects in the Dixon area.
“And now this bank allows you to take hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments and with only your name on this account, no one knows it exists,” he said. “And then you can take that and bring it to your own account, and that’s what he’s done.”
In 1991, he He withdrew $181,000stated the Department of Justice. Over two decades, Rita made 169 transfers, averaging $2.5 million a year. As of 2012, his pilferage continued unchecked, accounting for a whopping 28% of Dixon’s budget over the past six years.
Crundwell’s scheme went awry while he was away at a horse show and Swanson had to take the treasurer’s report for a town hall meeting and get statements for an account he hadn’t previously accessed — Crundwell’s secret account. to Swanson.
“I looked at it, and this was none of our business. But it had the name of the city of Dixon on it, and I immediately thought, it doesn’t look like it’s legit,” he said.
The deposits Swanson saw were large sums of money that had no clear source or legitimate purpose in the city. The frequency and size of these transactions raised immediate red flags.
“About three days later, the mayor came into my office, and he started talking to me about the dire situation we were in – the city,” he said.
“Scam Goddess” host Laci Mosley stands next to a statue of Ronald Reagan as she examines how Rita Grundwell scammed the people of Dixon, Illinois.
ABC News Studios
Swanson revealed what he found, and then Mayor Jim Burke immediately called in the FBI. He assisted in the six-month investigation and Crundwell was arrested in April 2012. He eventually pleaded guilty to wire fraud and admitted to participating in money laundering as part of his plea deal.
Crundwell, who was 60 at the time, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison.
“I went to his sentencing because I wanted to hear him say, ‘I’m sorry for what I did,’ or apologize to the citizens of Dixon,” Swanson said. “He didn’t. He apologized to his friends and his family.”
Dixon managed to recoup much of what Crundwell embezzled by auctioning off his assets and settling a lawsuit with city auditors, who lost his scheme for more than 20 years.
After serving eight years of his sentence, Crundwell was placed under house arrest during the pandemic and President Joe Biden. he changed his sentence in december It is now rarely seen in the community, but the city used the economic rebound to upgrade infrastructure and build a new riverfront project.
“You can’t look in the rearview mirror. We have to look to the future,” Langloss said. “We must continue to create Dixon’s future. Rita is just a name. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
