DIXON, Ill. (AP) — A former Dixon comptroller convicted of stealing nearly $54 million from the northern Illinois city has won an early release from federal prison.
Rita Crundwell, 68, was sentenced to serve 19 years and seven months in prison. She had been scheduled to be released Oct. 20, 2029, U.S. Bureau of Prisons said. However, with about eight years left on her 19½-year sentence, she was released Wednesday from the Federal Correctional Institute in Pekin to a Chicago halfway house.
“It is incredibly frustrating that Dixon was given no victim notification of Rita Crundwell’s release,” Dixon Mayor Liandro Arellano said in a statement. “Dixonites are still dealing with the social and financial aftermath of the damage she did, and our community deserved notice of and reasoning for this decision.”
The reason for her early release was not disclosed, Dixon officials said.
Crundwell pleaded guilty on Nov. 14, 2012, to stealing $53.7 million from the city since 1990 and used the money to finance her nationally renowned horse-breeding operation and lavish lifestyle, the FBI has said.
