In Let’s Go to the Movies, I will review All the Queen’s Horses.
The documentary tells the story of the city comptroller of Dixon, IL (pop. 15,733) — Rita Crundwell, who stole $53 million from public funds ($3,369 per Dixon resident) over 20 years––making her the perpetrator of the largest public case of municipal fraud in American history. For 20 years, the town mayor, CPA and bank claim they did not notice.
Related reading:
I lived and worked in Dixon during the years that Ms. Rita was in her heyday. We all feel there was at least one other person involved. The documentary is interesting on many levels but certainly because the city did not seem to miss the money, the auditors were clueless and the bank who had the city’s accounts did not follow their own protocol for handling the accounts of that business. Yet a city worker “caught” the discrepancy as soon as they were confronted with the facts.Thank you Catherine for calling attention to this amazing case of fraud.
Given how carefully every dime is tracked in our economy – someone knew. The story in the documentary lets the real culprits skate.