RC Quarter Horses – Special Services
Challenge
- To maintain, preserve and care for the more than 400 horses, livestock and other animals of which the USDOJ took immediate possession.
- The animals needed to be inventoried, cared for and possibly relocated (for medical reasons) to other properties better equipped to handle the animals’ needs.
- Coordinate shelter, food, medical care, grooming, veterinary services and competitive-level training until a sale date for the animals was determined.
Solution
- The Rally team worked directly with USDOJ representatives, local and state law enforcement and other professionals to establish a budget for the daily care of all animals.
- Rally immediately hired back Crundwell’s farm hands, hired additional employees and engaged other service providers to assess current situation as well as to quickly protect and care for livestock.
- The team quickly developed an inventory system, as well as a way to track the animals though the ranch system.
- Each horse was carefully monitored, compliant with veterinary and farrier necessities.
- A detailed record for each horse was maintained through the entire process.
Results
- Rally was at the ranch from April-September 2012. An auction was conducted on September 23, 2012, for substantially all of Crundwell’s assets.
- Each of the more than 400 horses, as well as other assets, including jewelry, motor vehicles and real estate, were sold through the auction for an approximate total of $11 million.
- To date, the City of Dixon has realized approximately $40 million in recovery through asset sales and those proceeds have been returned to the taxpayers of the City of Dixon.
Company Profile
On April 17, 2012, Rita Crundwell the then Comptroller for the City of Dixon, IL, was arrested and charged with defrauding the northern Illinois municipality of more than $55 million of taxpayer dollars over a period of more than 20 years. Crundwell misappropriated the public funds for personal use in an elaborate scheme to finance a lavish lifestyle that included operating one of the most highly regarded Quarter Horse farm in the world. At the time of her arrest, Crundwell’s ranches listed a population of more than 400 horses. In addition to the horses, her assets also included three homes and a lavish motor coach trailer. Once the fraud was exposed, federal agents from the U.S. Marshals office executed search and seizure warrants and assumed control of all Crundwell’s assets.