All The Queens Horses – Case Study 2
Instructions: Please answer the following questions. Your answer should be at least 3 sentences.
Questions:
1. Describe the fraud scheme committed by Rita Crundwell, including how she concealed the fraud.
2. How did Rita Crundwell steal over $37,000 each day from a town with an annual budget of around $6 million?
3. How could this fraud have been prevented? In your discussion, be sure to explain the controls that were missing at City Hall.
4. How could such embezzlement go undetected in annual audits by two independent accounting firms and in annual audit reviews by state regulators? How was this fraud continued for so many years? What red flags did the City and auditors miss?
5. How did residents not become suspicious of Crundwell’s extravagant wealth and frivolous spending?
6. How was the fraud finally detected?
7. What is it about Rita’s story that makes this such an important subject? In other words, why is Rita’s story important?
8. Why don’t most “fraudsters” take time off of work?
9. Do you feel anyone else should have been held responsible and charged for not discovering Rita was embezzling money?
10. What are some of the internal controls Dixon Illinois implemented to prevent fraud in the future
11. Describe some of the ways that Rita was able to get away with the fraud for so long
12. Do you feel Rita deserved 19 years and 2 months in jail for her crime? Rita felt that was a very harsh sentence. Explain your answer.
