Kathe Swanson asked the bank for all of Dixon’s statements. She was covering for the city comptroller, Rita Crundwell, during an extended absence in 2011. One statement showed an account Swanson didn’t recognize. She took it to Mayor Jim Burke. He didn’t recognize it either. Burke contacted law enforcement that fall. [1] [4]
The account’s name sounded like something an Illinois city might have: Reserve Sewer Capital Development Account. Crundwell had opened it in the city’s name in 1990 and was the only person who controlled it. By the time she pleaded guilty, it had been part of a scheme that took about $53.7 million from Dixon over two decades. [1]
A sewer invoice buys a horse
Crundwell had worked in the finance department since high school and became comptroller and treasurer in 1983. In 1991, she moved more than $181,000 into the account. In 2008, the annual theft reached $5.8 million. In budget meetings she blamed the city’s financial trouble on the economy and slow payments from the state. [1]
On September 8, 2009, she moved $350,000 through the city’s Capital Development Fund into the secret account. The paperwork said the money was for sewer work the state had completed. Prosecutors said the invoice was one of 159 she’d fabricated. Later that day, $225,000 went from the secret account into her horse business. It covered a check she’d written to buy a quarter horse named Pizzazzy Lady. Without the city’s money, prosecutors said, the check wouldn’t have cleared. [1]
Which statements made it to City Hall
Crundwell collected the city’s mail herself. When she was away, she asked others to pick it up and separate the statements she wanted kept apart. That gave her a way to keep the account out of the ordinary run of city paperwork. Swanson’s request went to the bank for the full set of statements. It brought the account into view without anybody having to guess where Crundwell’s spending money came from. [1] [4]
Crundwell was arrested in April 2012 and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in November. In February 2013, a federal judge sentenced her to 19 years and seven months in prison and ordered $53,740,394 in restitution. The judge also took into account what the theft had done to city services and public confidence. [1]
What could be sold
The seized property included roughly 400 horses. They still needed care while the U.S. Marshals Service arranged auctions. The agency reported $7.2 million from sales in September 2012. By sentencing, reported gross asset sales exceeded $12.38 million, with about $9.5 million in net proceeds held in escrow. The sale totals and the restitution order measure different things. Neither figure established how much money Dixon ultimately got back. [1] [3]
President Joe Biden commuted Crundwell’s sentence in December 2024. The wire fraud conviction remained in place. The records that helped establish the loss began with a request a city clerk could make while doing somebody else’s job: send all the statements. [1] [2] [4]
Case brief
Dixon, Illinois · 1990–2012
- Recorded outcome
- Pleaded guilty in 2012; sentenced in 2013; listed as a recipient of a federal commutation on December 12, 2024.
Key moments
People and case photographs
Galena Avenue in Dixon, Illinois The city’s memorial arch in 2007, during the years Rita Crundwell served as comptroller and diverted municipal funds.
Location photograph · Framerotblues via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain dedication- Rita Crundwell
Pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud
Photo at source · WGLT · captioned file photograph
Look closer · 3 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
The statements someone else requested
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The full bank statements exposed an account the mayor did not know existed.
Not real statements or account numbers. The illustration marks the discovery of the concealed account.
A sewer invoice and a horse
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The September 2009 records traced city funds through the concealed account to a quarter-horse purchase.
Generic horse, not Pizzazzy Lady. No authentic invoice or signature reproduced.
From assets to restitution
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Sales turned assets into money, but gross proceeds, net proceeds and restitution obligations were distinct.
Recovery context, not a claim that Dixon had been fully repaid.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
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Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- Former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell Sentenced for $53.7 Million TheftPlea, 235-month sentence, scheme chronology, account discovery, fake invoices, city impact, assets and restitution order.
- Office of the Pardon Attorney: December 12, 2024 Commutation RecipientsRita A. Crundwell's inclusion in federal commutation list, not exoneration or a current restitution balance.
- U.S. Marshals Service: September 2012 Crundwell auctionAgency account of September 23–24 auction and contemporary combined auction proceeds.
- Chicago magazine: The Rita Crundwell investigationIdentifies Dixon clerk Kathe Swanson and Mayor Jim Burke and describes the discovery of the account.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 508 words