12/15/2024
The former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, convicted of embezzling over $53 million from city coffers, was among nearly 1,500 people who had their sentences commuted by President Joe Biden on Thursday.
Rita Crundwell, 71, served a little over eight years in federal prison for the largest municipal theft in U.S. history and was released on Aug. 4, 2021.
Crundwell has been in a halfway house since her release and had a projected release date of Oct. 20, 2029.
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It was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The president also issued 39 pardons on Thursday.
Crundwell, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced in 2013 in federal court in Rockford to 19 years and seven months in prison for defrauding taxpayers out of $53.7 million
Crundwell used the funds to secure a lavish lifestyle that included owning champion horses, an 88-acre ranch and a Florida vacation home
Crundwell funneled city funds into a private account over more than two decades.
Dixon is a city of about 14,000 an hour southwest of Rockford.
Dixon City Manager Danny Langloss Jr. said the decision to commute Crundwell's sentence was "a complete travesty of justice and a slap in the face for our entire community."
Professor Elam 
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