In addition to the employee tip, the city received a letter from a neighboring community that something was amiss with the City of Dixon’s financial statements based on their similar size and proximity. As was the case in Dixon, the tip is typically reported by an employee. (ACFE), a tip is the number-one fraud detection method. Tips are essential in fraud detection.Īccording to “Report to the Nations: 2018 Global Study on Occupational Fraud and Abuse' from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Inc. Below are other control weaknesses governments need to consider.Ģ. Failure to enact basic internal controls like these contributes to 30 percent of the frauds that occur. As the film shows, entrusting all of these responsibilities to one person was a crucial mistake, a major control deficiency that enabled Crundwell to steal money undetected. She did it all -opening the mail, preparing and signing the checks, and reconciling the bank accounts. Basic internal controls are an absolute necessity no matter how trustworthy people seem.Ĭrundwell was a long-time and trusted employee. Specifically, the film demonstrates the following truths: 1. But as the film makes clear, the crime was made possible by basic failures of governance, controls and operations. Horses leaves many viewers bewildered that theft of such a magnitude could happen for so long without being detected - especially in a community with a general fund budget of only $8 to $9 million per year. To watch this illuminating, sobering film is to witness a shocking institutional collapse. In 2012, Crundwell confessed to embezzling more than $53 million, used to support her championship quarter horse breeding operations and a lavish lifestyle. Crundwell, the city’s controller and treasurer for close to 30 years.

The victim: Dixon, Illinois, a modest municipality with a population of around 15,800.

How does $53 million disappear?Īn award-winning film now available on streaming platforms, Horses documents the largest municipal fraud in U.S.

Pope’s film is a story of how one person’s fraud - enabled by poor internal controls - left a humble Midwest city struggling to put itself together again. Kelly Richmond Pope’s riveting documentary, fittingly titled All the Queen’s Horses ( Horses), tells another such story. One of the most famous stories in all of literature - the tale of Humpty Dumpty - has become a metaphor for the fragile nature of power, a reminder of the catastrophic collapse and irreparable damage that greed can cause. Authored by Carla Gogin and Andrea Jansen

Rita crundwell story