'Scam Goddess' explores city worker's 22-year deception

The city of Dixon, Illinois, population 16,000, has long been famous as the hometown of former President Ronald Reagan. In 2012, it became infamous when it was revealed that one of its residents embezzled $53.7 million from the community over 22 years.

Rita Crundwell used her position as the city's comptroller and treasurer to siphon off money to finance her Quarter Horse breeding operation, become a big deal in the competitive equestrian world and set up a luxurious home life, according to the Department of Justice.

"Scam Goddess," which premieres Jan. 15 at 10 p.m. ET on Freeform and streams the next day on Hulu, follows host Laci Mosley as she meets the people who knew Rita Crundwell and saw the fallout after her crimes were discovered.

Crundwell had decades to get to know the intricacies of city finances, having started working there as a teenager.

"She would be their runner while she was in high school. They'd say, Rita, here, take this, and off she'd run and come back," former Mayor Jim Dixon said. "But at the same time, she'd handle some of the books, so she was learning that skill."

After she got out of high school, Crundwell got a full-time job with the city and ultimately secured the position she would use to her advantage.

"Just before I became mayor, the comptroller retired, and they gave Rita the title as comptroller without taking away her title and authority of the treasurer," Dixon said. "She had total control then over all the finances."

She maintained her side hustle showing horses throughout this time, earning admiration from the community.

"Rita received a lot of local publicity for her work with the Quarter Horses and all of her shows and so on. Every now and then, there'd be a story about Rita in the newspaper," Dixon said. "She sold a Quarter Horse for $150,000. Must be a wonderful business."

However, the $80,000 salary she drew as a city employee and the prizes she won in the horse world weren't enough to fund that business and her lifestyle. She bought a motor home worth $2.1 million in 2009 -- a time when Dixon was struggling in the midst of the global financial crisis.

Crundwell was living the life of a rock star, with a huge farm and a nice home, which included custom-made furnishings like a chandelier crafted from old revolvers, personalized tables and a floor inlaid with her initials. She owned RVs, horse trailers, bespoke furniture and a vacation home in Florida.

Danny Langloss, Dixon's city manager, noted that community public works were "severely neglected" during this period.

"We had people driving around in pick-up trucks with holes in the floor," he said. "The projects that weren't able to be completed because we didn't have that money."

While the city of Dixon was closing its pools because it couldn't afford to operate them, the defendant built a pool complete with a sauna.

Kathe Swanson, Dixon's deputy treasurer, highlighted Crundwell's penny-pinching. When people retired, no one was hired to replace them and more work fell on Swanson.

"She left me high and dry," she said. "And then when we'd have to pay the bills, she'd stand there and go through every envelope and say 'Pay this, don't pay this. Pay this, don't pay this.'"

More seriously, Swanson said Crundwell turned down a request for an upgrade to emergency services.

"The police chief went to her and said, you know, we need a new radio system because there are dead spots in Dixon," Swanson said. "And she told him 'I'm sorry, we don't have the money in the budget.'"

Crundwell got away with it for so long because she is "a master manipulator," according to Langloss.

"She always made the people with her feel like the most important people in the room," he said. "If you think about it, right, like, so many of these people worked with her since she was 16 or 17 and she was an intern, and turned a lot of heads with her work ethic, her personality, the way she was able to connect with people."

In her capacities as comptroller and treasurer, Crundwell opened a secret bank account in her name in 1990. Once the account was open, Langloss said she created fictitious invoices for large sums of money for road projects around Dixon.

"And now this bank allows you to take several hundred thousand dollar payments and put it in this account that only your name is on, that nobody knows exists," he said. "And then you can take that and move it to your own account, and that's exactly what she did."

In 1991, she siphoned off $181,000, the Department of Justice noted. Over the course of two decades, Rita executed 169 transfers, averaging $2.5 million per year. Her embezzlement spree continued unchecked until 2012, with her thefts totaling a staggering 28% of Dixon's budget in the final six years.

Crundwell's scheme came crashing down when she was away at a horse show and her deputy Swanson had to get the treasurer's report for a city council meeting and received statements for an account she didn't previously have access to -- Crundwell's secret account -- according to Swanson.

"I looked at it, and this wasn't our account. But it had the City of Dixon's name on it, and I immediately thought, it doesn't look like it's, it's legitimate," she said.

The deposits Swanson saw were massive sums of money that had no clear source or legitimate city purpose. The frequency and size of these transactions raised immediate red flags.

"About three days later, the mayor came into my office, and he started to talk to me how bad we were in dire straits -- the city," she said.

Swanson revealed what she had found, and then-Mayor Jim Burke immediately called the FBI. She assisted in their six-month investigation and Crundwell was arrested in April 2012. She ultimately pleaded guilty to wire fraud and admitted she engaged in money laundering as part of her plea deal.

Crundwell, who was 60 at the time, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in a federal prison.

"I did go to her sentencing, because I wanted to hear her say 'I'm sorry for what I did,' or apologize to the citizens of Dixon," Swanson said. "She didn't. She apologized to her friends and her family."

Dixon managed to recoup much of what Crundwell embezzled by auctioning off her assets and settling a lawsuit with the city's auditors, who missed her scheme for more than 20 years.

After serving eight years of her sentence, Crundwell was transferred to home confinement during the pandemic and President Joe Biden commuted her sentence in December. She's seldom seen in the community now, but the city harnessed its economic rebound to upgrade its infrastructure and build its new riverfront project.

"You can't look in the rearview mirror. We got to keep our eyes on the future," Langloss said. "We got to keep creating the future of Dixon. Rita is just a name. She matters no more."