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Hey, everyone. We'll be back next week with all new episodes. But in the meantime, we're

returning to one of our scammers who actually has a huge update. Yeah, Rita Cronwell was an

unassuming comptroller of her small hometown of Dixon, Illinois. Until she decided to crime,

big time, to pursue her horse girl dreams.

Rita stole more than $53 million to buy fancy horses, trailers, and outfits for horse shows.

But she also built a mansion with a pool, a house in Florida, and crystal studded sponge bob jewelry.

It was the largest municipal theft in U.S. history.

She was sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison,

but in 2021, after serving just eight years,

she was released to a halfway house to serve the rest of her time.

But in December 2024,

then President Joe Biden commuted the sentences

of nearly 1,500 people in one day, including Rita. Biden said that, quote, these commutation

recipients who were placed on home confinement during the COVID pandemic have successfully reintegrated

into their families and communities and have shown that

they deserve a second chance. You know, I feel kind of ambivalent about this. This is not the

worst thing Biden did at any point in his political career. But I imagine people in her hometown

weren't very happy about it. Yeah, this did not go over well with the people of Dixon. Dixon city manager

Danny Langloss Jr. said the decision to commute Rita's sentence was, quote, a complete

travesty of justice and a slap in the face for our entire community. No word on whether Rita

has plans to reenter the horse world, but wherever she is, she's living Scott-free.

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