SSMMA Executive Director Kristi DeLaurentiis and Kelly Richmond Pope, Ph.D., CPA at the Nathan Manilow Theatre in Freedom Hall
Kelly Richmond Pope, Ph.D., CPA, director and producer of “All the Queen’s Horses,” provided an overview of best practices related to financial oversight after documentary viewers watched Pope’s film. The screening and Q&A took place July 24 at the Nathan Manilow Theatre in Freedom Hall, and was hosted by SSMMA’s Management & Finance Committee, and sponsored by Ancel, Glink, Diamond, Bush, DiCianni & Rolek, et al., along with the Village of Park Forest.
“All the Queen’s Horses” is the story of Rita A. Crundwell, who was the appointed controller and treasurer of Dixon, Illinois from 1983 to 2012, and the admitted operator of what is believed to be the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. She was fired in April 2012 after the discovery that she had embezzled $53.7 million from the city of Dixon for over twenty-two years to support her championship American Quarter Horse breeding operation. Crundwell pleaded guilty to her crimes and was sentenced to nearly twenty years in prison.
Pope provided a call to action to all those with oversight to do a better job, to take responsibility, and to provide the protection that citizens are entitled to have. A 2017 WTTW News segment, ‘All The Queen’s Horses’ Tells the Story of Rita Crundwell, offers a compelling interview of Pope and Attorney Devon Bruce on the story. Bruce filed a civil suit on behalf of the City of Dixon.