Rita Crundwell, who embezzled nearly $54 million from Dixon, released from federal prison

Rita Crundwell, who was convicted of embezzling nearly $54 million from Dixon when she worked as the comptroller of the small town 100 miles west of Chicago, has been released from prison, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

In 2013, Crundwell was sentenced to 19 years, 7 months in federal prison.

“It is incredibly frustrating that Dixon was given no victim notification of Rita Crundwell's release. Dixonites are still dealing with the social and financial aftermath of the damage she did, and our community deserved notice of and reasoning for this decision,” Dixon Mayor Liandro Arellano said in a post on the police department's Facebook page.

The post said Crundwell, 68, was released Wednesday from the medium-security federal prison in downstate Pekin.

Crundwell spent much of the money on maintaining a lavish lifestyle and her championship-winning horse breeding business.

The Bureau of Prisons confirmed Thursday it had transferred Crundwell to “community confinement” overseen by a residential reentry management field office, more commonly known as a halfway house, in Downers Grove.

The bureau said Crundwell is either on home confinement or living at the halfway house but did not specify which for reasons of privacy and security.

To read the full story, visit chicago.suntimes.com.