Rita Crundwell

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Rita A. Crundwell (née Humphrey; born January 10, 1953) is an American woman who served as the comptroller and treasurer of Dixon, Illinois, from 1983 to 2012. She was fired and arrested 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 championship American Quarter Horse breeding operation, as well as a lavish lifestyle away from work. Her embezzlement has been described as the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. Crundwell pleaded guilty to her crimes and was sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in prison. Crundwell used the money to turn her Quarter Horse breeding operation, RC Quarter Horses, into 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. She spent 8+1⁄2 years (43% of her sentence) in prison before being released in mid-2021 to serve the remainder of her sentence in home confinement. Her sentence was commuted along with nearly 1500 other people by President Biden on December 12, 2024. Those commuted were people who had been previously transferred from prison to house arrest under the CARES Act due to having a high risk of COVID-19.