(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of two of Chicago’s most notorious fraudsters who swindled millions of dollars Thursday morning, among hundreds of other acts of clemency.
The president pardoned 39 criminals and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 prisoners placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic in what his administration called “the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history,” according to a White House fact sheet.
President Joe Biden on Thursday commuted the sentences of two of the Chicago area’s most notorious fraudsters: former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell and Eric Bloom.https://t.co/mXZBeVil6A
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) December 12, 2024
Among Biden’s commutations were former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell, who embezzled roughly $54 million to fund her opulent lifestyle, and Eric Bloom, who defrauded Northbrook management firm investors of more than $665 million, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Although Biden’s action did not erase the felony convictions of Crundwell and Bloom, it ended their sentences effective immediately.
President Biden commuted the sentence of Rita Crundwell, the woman who embezzled over $53 million from a small Illinois town and spent it on luxury goods, real estate, and a horse breeding business.
Crundwell’s scheme was the largest municipal embezzlement in US history and… pic.twitter.com/rh5LK8XFKQ
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) December 13, 2024
Crundwell, 71, pleaded guilty to stealing $53.4 million to use for her own personal expenses, including her quarter horse business, according to the outlet.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2013, released in 2021 to a halfway house in Downers Grove after convincing a judge of her poor health.
“While many families in Dixon were living paycheck to paycheck, she took advantage of their trust in government and used her access to live an unearned life of luxury, in what the FBI still believes to be the largest theft of public funds in U.S. history,” Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., said in a statement Thursday. “Commuting her 20-year sentence is a slap in the face to all the hardworking police officers, firefighters, city workers, and residents of Dixon.”
Illinois’ history of corruption has marred our state with controversy and public distrust. Leniency towards public officials who have abused their power – like Rita Crundwell – only further erodes the integrity of our institutions. pic.twitter.com/yblnTqYAwG
— Darin LaHood (@RepLaHood) December 12, 2024
Crundwell was supposed to serve her sentence until Oct. 2028, according to the outlet.
Bloom, the head of since-collapsed Sentinel Management Group, was sentence to 14 years in prison in 2015.
When he was convicted in 2012, prosecutors called Bloom reckless act of exposing customers to increasingly risky 2003 deals as the largest single financial fraud in Chicago history, the outlet reported.
Bloom, 59, was supposed to serve his sentence until May 2026, according to the outlet.
Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and the American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.
