Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
Greedy Woman Steals $53,000,000 From Her City - The Rita Crundwell story
12 Apr 2025
The Rita Crundwell story is one of the largest municipal fraud cases in U.S. history. As the longtime comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, Crundwell embezzled over $53 million from the small town over two decades, using the funds to finance a lavish lifestyle that included luxury cars, jewelry, and one of the nation’s top quarter horse breeding operations. She kept the theft hidden by creating a fake bank account and manipulating city financial records, all while Dixon struggled with budget cuts and deficits.
Full Episode
So this horse lady, she has a problem. She really wants to be rich. But unfortunately, she has no way to make that kind of money. She's just a regular woman from a small town. And one day in 1990, she figures out exactly how she's gonna do it. She's gonna rob the city.
Now, her name is Rita, and Rita's 37, and she's living in the small town of Dixon, Illinois, and she works in City Hall as the treasurer and comptroller, which basically means she controls this little city's finances. And because she controls the finances, she decides to divert some of that money to herself. So she goes and she opens a secret bank account in the city's name.
And no one knows this account exists. And she starts funneling the city's money into that account. Tens of thousands of dollars at a time. And within the first year, she has stolen $181,000. Not bad. And of course, Rita's gotta take this money and spend it on some bullshit.
Like she treats herself to a shopping spree, she buys some $3,000 diamond earrings, she buys a $19,000 pontoon boat with a barbecue grill and a whole-ass bar on it. Oh, and she doesn't stop there. Over the next two years, she funnels even more of the city's money into the account. So now she's up to over $300,000 that she's taken.
And still, no one notices because she's the treasurer and comptroller. So she just keeps going. Over the next decade, she takes more and more of that money and she spends it on herself. and she buys all kinds of stuff.
She buys Versace glasses, $3,000 worth of jewelry, an entire furniture set for her living room, and then two years later, she steals more and she buys herself a golf cart and a quarter horse and a $7,000 custom saddle for that horse. And a year after that, she buys a new truck and a second boat, because you know, you gotta have two boats, plus a $100,000 motor home to travel around in.
And a year or so after that, she spends $125,000 on yet another horse. Then she spends a half a million dollars remodeling her home, and she adds a pool and a sauna. Rita is out of control with this spending. Here's the thing, though. At this point, she's been pulling this scam for over a decade. And still, no one working at City Hall has caught on.
Which is weird because her salary, the salary that the city pays her, is only $80,000 a year. So you'd think at least some people would be like, where the hell is Rita getting all this money for like new horses and sh**? Because a big chunk of what Rita buys herself are new horses. I mean, this woman loves horses, and so she starts buying herself tons of them.
And she's always traveling around the country in her $100,000 motorhome to compete in like horse shows because I guess that's her thing. And she actually wins a lot of these horse shows. Here she is winning one of them. Here she is winning another. And here's another. And just for fun, here she is drunk holding up a sign that says, it's good to be queen.
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