“Darlene hired Rita Crundwell as a part-time work-study,” said Lohse, now 80. Shortly after, with Dixon as mayor, Crundwell was appointed comptroller. Herzog, who died in 2009, left May 1, 1983. He said he believed Crundwell could take over the comptroller’s office. Lohse told the council that Crundwell, then the city clerk, had told him she was interested in the position. Shortly before that, Finance Commissioner Walter Lohse, a council member, announced that Herzog was resigning earlier than scheduled because of health issues. Dixon won big in the April 1983 election. (Rockford, for instance, had the highest unemployment rate of any metropolitan area in the country for a time in 1982.)ĭixon’s budget suffered, and Lindquist’s rival, Jim Dixon, promised change at City Hall. Lindquist had taken back the mayor’s seat 4 years earlier, but tough economic times followed in Dixon and the region. The state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which has a database containing the names of active and inactive engineers, doesn’t include Jerry Crundwell. Record searches turn up nothing, other than a February obituary that indicated his brother died in Florida.Īn engineer with Homer Chastain since 1982 said this week that he never knew anyone by the name of Crundwell at his firm. She testified that her take-home pay was about $20,000 a year. Route 52 and her 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass. marshals who have been selling off many of Crundwell's assets said Thursday that they expect about $10 million to ultimately be returned to Dixon coffers.īut with 60 counts of felony theft still pending in Lee County court, Crundwell potentially still faces additional prison time.Under the settlement, Crundwell kept their $80,000 house at 1673 U.S. The mayor, though, questioned the sincerity of Crundwell's apology, saying, "I think her conscience didn't bother her at all." "And I think that's the lesson for other municipalities."īurke said he was pleased to see Crundwell immediately taken into custody but said the sentencing was also emotional, "knowing her all these years and (to) think what a tragedy this whole thing is, not only for the city but for her also." Attorney Joseph Pedersen, who prosecuted the case. "You can trust but you have to verify," said Assistant U.S. Another city official uncovered the account while Crundwell had taken extended time off to attend horse competitions around the country. She also had purchased a sprawling ranch in Dixon, homes in Illinois and Florida, a luxury motor home, hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry, and amassed almost $250,000 in bank accounts.Įven the judge pondered aloud in court Thursday how the fraud went on undetected for so long, but Crundwell, who was also the city's treasurer, had complete control over the municipal purse strings and even collected the mail so her secret account would not be discovered. She owned about 400 horses by the time of her arrest. She used the taxpayer money to amass a quarter horse operation that was the envy of the industry. The thefts grew bolder over time, peaking at $5.8 million in 2008 alone. By the next month she started funneling money from various city accounts into the Capital Development Fund account, then into her secret account. Crundwell, who started working for the city's Finance Department in 1970 while still in high school, siphoned money from the bank account of the city's Sister City program, taking at least $25,000 over two years, prosecutors said.Īccording to her guilty plea, the fraud began in December 1990 when Crundwell opened a secret city bank account. "Rita Crundwell saw firsthand the penalty the city was paying for financing her highflying, 20-plus years," he said in reference to the budget woes caused by her thievery.įor the first time, authorities suggested that Crundwell's thefts may have gone back as far as 1988, earlier than alleged in the charges.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |