The longtime bookkeeper of a small U.S. city pleaded guilty to allegations she embezzled more than $50 million to fund a lavish lifestyle.
Rita Crundwell is the former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, the boyhood home of former president Ronald Reagan. She pleaded guilty to a charge of wire fraud in federal court and was allowed to remain free until her Feb. 14 sentencing hearing.
She's accused of stealing public money while overseeing the city's public finances and siphoning it into a secret bank account, U.S. attorney's spokesman Randall Samborn said.
People had come to trust the 58-year-old Crundwell to manage the town's finances with little oversight. Prosecutors say her scheme unravelled only after a co-worker filling in for her while she was on vacation stumbled upon the secret bank account.
"It is a pity and tragedy - for us and herself," Mayor James Burke said.
Crundwell deserves a long prison sentence, Burke said. "There is no indication that she has remorse over this whole thing."
Authorities say Crund-well bought luxury homes and vehicles, and spent millions on her horse-breeding operation, RC Quarter Horses LLC, which produced 52 world champions in exhibitions run by the American Quarter Horse Association.
A guilty plea enables U.S. marshals to start selling off millions of dollars of assets still in Crundwell's name, including about $450,000 worth of diamonds and other jewels, ranch land and a house in Florida, he said.
Crundwell's federal public defenders did not return phone messages.
