In 2013 Rita Crundwell, the city comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, pled guilty to embezzlement in what has been called “the largest municipal fraud in United States history”. She was sentenced to 19 years in prison. As part of his mass pardon, President Joe Biden has commuted her sentence. NBC 5 Chicago reports:
Rita Crundwell, the former Dixon comptroller who stole more than $50 million in what some publications called “the largest municipal fraud in United States history,” had her sentence commuted by President Joe Biden Thursday.
Crundwell was one of nearly 1,500 individuals who had their sentences commuted by the president in one of the largest single-day actions in U.S. history, with the president also issuing more than three dozen pardons.
Crundwell served as Dixon’s comptroller for more than 20 years, and pleaded guilty in 2013 to embezzling more than $50 million from the city over the course of that time. She used the funds to build a massive championship-winning horse breeding and show operation, according to prosecutors.
Pardoning her is certainly clement but I believe it is a miscarriage of justice. She should serve her full sentence and not under home confinement.
Is pardoning her just part of a mass pardon? If so it illustrates the injustices of mass pardons. If not did someone advocate for her pardon? I believe the voters of Illinois deserve to know if their elected officials are advocating the pardon of their corrupt peers.
Probably part of a mass pardon.
Biden’s doing the Trump theory of handling negative PR.
Drive the outrage out of the news Hunter’s pardon with the next controversy, which may even look worse in some aspects.
There’s more to come, it is only Dec 13. There’s Christmas pardons and end of term pardons.
I try to not be judgmental on pardons and commutations because I think President’s probably don’t use the power enough. The part that bothered me here though was the question in the article about whether the commutation also ended any further final obligations she had. She stole a lot of money and profited from the theft; there should be zero tolerance for personal profit from public service. See this part of the linked article:
“Horses owned by Crundwell were still generating royalties while she was in prison via so-called “breeder’s trusts,” which “make it possible for breeders to collect proceeds even if they won’t own a winning show horse, and allowing them to earn money as a ‘subscriber’ — a person who resisters a stallion to sire foals — or as a ‘nominator’ — a person who previously owned a foal that eventually earns money,” according to NBC 5 Investigates.””
Or, said another way, crime DOES pay when you have friends in high places.
When the crime was first reported, everybody I knew couldn’t believe a city of 15,000 people could have missed over $50M from the city funds while not noticing the opulent lifestyle of the City Treasurer/Comptroller.
I’m skeptical that she’s an important person to anyone. I just assume largescale pardons run a high risks of details being missed. Governor Quinn released a bunch of violent felons at the end of his term that seemed to because of haste and mistakes.
AS I wrote in the post the moral of the story is don’t issue mass pardons.
I think pardons are overused. As presented this sounds worse than pardoning Blago.
Steve