American Greed s08e03 The Cunning Cowgirl Crook Dollars for Dumps.eng Subtitles

At 00:00:03,440, Character said: In this episode of American Greed, ride
them, cowgirl.

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At 00:00:08,140, Character said: Rita Cronwell appears to be a humble
small -town civil servant, which is

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At 00:00:13,180, Character said: a double life as a world champion horse
breeder. It's a deception that comes at

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At 00:00:17,600, Character said: a huge price.

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At 00:00:18,880, Character said: Everything that I've learned about
showing horses, you must either be

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At 00:00:23,260, Character said: independently wealthy or you're stealing
the money.

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At 00:00:26,260, Character said: When this cunning comptroller diverts
more than $53 million of Dixon,

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At 00:00:31,160, Character said: money into her horse empire,

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At 00:00:33,310, Character said: She leaves a city on the verge of
collapse.

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At 00:00:35,751, Character said: People are going to have to lose their
jobs to balance this budget. For what? A

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At 00:00:39,870, Character said: divorce? For a trophy?

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At 00:00:41,570, Character said: Are you kidding me? And later, Staten
Island native Joe Mazzella wants to help

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At 00:00:46,850, Character said: friends and neighbors with the promise
of using their money to turn distressed

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At 00:00:50,510, Character said: properties into highly profitable
residential oases.

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At 00:00:54,390, Character said: Joe's pitches.

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At 00:00:55,441, Character said: We're just like you going out and having
a beer with a friend. He lures in

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At 00:00:59,040, Character said: retirees, policemen, firemen, and even
members of the deaf community.

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At 00:01:04,099, Character said: But this opportunity is a $14 million
scam, where his clients' savings and

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At 00:01:09,420, Character said: end up as gutted as his junk properties.

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At 00:01:12,200, Character said: I was calling him every single day.

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At 00:01:14,260, Character said: Where's my money? Where's my money?
Where's my money? And there was no

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At 00:01:18,380, Character said: Nothing came.

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At 00:01:33,840, Character said: In the fall of 2011, as autumn leaves
begin to warm the landscape of the

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At 00:01:39,000, Character said: picturesque town of Dixon, Illinois, a
cold reality is taking hold.

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At 00:01:44,200, Character said: The city was drowning in debt. There
were streets that went unpaved. There

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At 00:01:48,140, Character said: sidewalks that went, you know, unfixed
because the city, as they believed, had

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At 00:01:53,780, Character said: no money to take care of those sorts of
things.

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At 00:01:57,080, Character said: Dixon Mayor Jim Burke hears the message
of distress year after year from the

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At 00:02:02,060, Character said: city official pulling Dixon's purse
strings, Comptroller Rita Cronwell.

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At 00:02:07,240, Character said: She would present the figures for the
annual budget workshop, which

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At 00:02:13,820, Character said: showed that it was going to be nip and
tuck because of the financial situation.

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At 00:02:19,440, Character said: But this fall, Cronwell is taking
vacation time to prepare for a quarter

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At 00:02:24,160, Character said: exhibition.

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At 00:02:25,230, Character said: She's hoping to add to her already
extensive collection of trophies as a

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At 00:02:29,270, Character said: champion show horse breeder and
exhibitor.

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At 00:02:32,350, Character said: Back in Dixon, however, the woman
filling in for Cronwell goes through the

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At 00:02:37,030, Character said: city's financials and uncovers a
mysterious bank account under Cronwell's

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At 00:02:41,730, Character said: control.

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At 00:02:42,830, Character said: In September alone, she finds more than
$750 ,000 are inexplicably siphoned

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At 00:02:49,590, Character said: into that strange account from the
city's coffers.

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At 00:02:52,830, Character said: She alerts the mayor.

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At 00:02:55,040, Character said: Our city clerk brought a bank statement
to me, and she

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At 00:03:01,820, Character said: said, I cannot connect this with
anything.

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At 00:03:04,120, Character said: I started to get sick to my stomach
because I realized this was a big ripoff

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At 00:03:09,560, Character said: going on.

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At 00:03:10,400, Character said: Six months later, Mayor Berg sits in
front of the citizens of Dixon and

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At 00:03:14,980, Character said: from media outlets across the country to
explain what authorities believe may be

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At 00:03:19,680, Character said: the biggest municipal fraud in U .S.
history.

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At 00:03:22,201, Character said: First of all, I'd like to thank the FBI
for their comprehensive response to our

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At 00:03:26,710, Character said: request for a criminal investigation
into this matter.

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At 00:03:30,690, Character said: This is a traumatic, upsetting event
that the citizens and council are

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At 00:03:35,250, Character said: experiencing. Traumatic and upsetting
are not words typically used in

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At 00:03:40,010, Character said: association with Dixon, Illinois.

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At 00:03:42,390, Character said: U .S. Marshal Jason Waddillo is
dispatched to Dixon just days after

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At 00:03:47,890, Character said: Burke's press conference in the spring
of 2012.

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At 00:03:51,950, Character said: The city was the size of 15 ,000, 16
,000 people, good, hardworking farmers,

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At 00:03:58,770, Character said: lot of farmers in the community. You
know, your typical heartland of America

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At 00:04:02,890, Character said: city.

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At 00:04:04,550, Character said: Rita Cronwell has worked in Dixon City
Hall since 1970, beginning as an eager

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At 00:04:09,930, Character said: high schooler and eventually making her
way up to city comptroller in 1983.

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At 00:04:14,891, Character said: My name is Dan Langloss. I'm the chief
of police in the city of Dixon. By the

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At 00:04:18,920, Character said: time Dan Langloss becomes the Dixon
chief of police in 2008, Cronwell has

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At 00:04:23,460, Character said: the trusted guardian of the city's
finances for 25 years.

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At 00:04:27,680, Character said: She was very highly regarded, very well
respected.

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At 00:04:30,660, Character said: If you had a question, go to Rita. If
you need something, go to Rita. And

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At 00:04:34,780, Character said: everybody always looked at her that she
could fix any problem or just take care

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At 00:04:38,220, Character said: of anything that needed to be done.

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At 00:04:40,720, Character said: If Cronwell's dependability is exhibited
in her work, her passion is on display

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At 00:04:46,000, Character said: in another arena, showing quarter horses
at exhibitions nationwide.

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At 00:04:51,980, Character said: Marsha Freeman breaks and trains horses
near Cronwell's home in Illinois and

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At 00:04:56,640, Character said: remembers Cronwell's early years in the
industry in the mid-'80s.

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At 00:05:00,840, Character said: At that point, I think she was just like
the regular horse person showing horses

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At 00:05:05,000, Character said: as a hobby, which would involve moving
in on a Thursday, showing horses Friday,

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At 00:05:09,480, Character said: Saturday, Sunday, and returning back
home and going back to a normal job and

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At 00:05:14,060, Character said: work week.

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At 00:05:15,500, Character said: But Cronwell takes this more seriously
than a weekend hobby. In 1990, she

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At 00:05:20,400, Character said: her own horse breeding business named R
.C. Quarter Horses, LLC.

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At 00:05:24,760, Character said: There's only one problem.

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At 00:05:26,760, Character said: Showing horses is an expensive hobby, so
you're...

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At 00:05:29,950, Character said: You're going to need to have some
startup cash to do it correctly.

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At 00:05:33,790, Character said: With her humble background, Cronwell
doesn't have enough money to support the

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At 00:05:38,010, Character said: boarding, medical care, transportation,
and trainers necessary for a world

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At 00:05:42,950, Character said: -class breeding program.

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At 00:05:44,650, Character said: But as Dixon's comptroller, large
amounts of cash pass through her hands

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At 00:05:50,250, Character said: day. According to Assistant U .S.
Attorney Joe Peterson, on December 18,

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At 00:05:56,940, Character said: Cronwell crosses a line that will change
her life and the city of Dixon forever.

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At 00:06:01,540, Character said: She opened a secret bank account in the
city's name, and only she has control of

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At 00:06:06,260, Character said: it. She named it the RSCDA account,
which stood for some acronym involving a

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At 00:06:12,780, Character said: sewer, reserve sewer account, but it
really was not a legitimate city account

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At 00:06:18,120, Character said: all. Because Cronwell has full authority
to write checks on the city's behalf,

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At 00:06:23,120, Character said: it's easy for her to filter government
money into the new account.

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At 00:06:27,320, Character said: She was creating fictitious invoices,
purportedly representing different

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At 00:06:33,120, Character said: projects that were going on in the city
that, in fact, never were going on. And

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At 00:06:38,140, Character said: then she would pay the bills. She would
pay the invoices and then deposit those

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At 00:06:42,660, Character said: checks into the secret bank account.

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At 00:06:45,080, Character said: As the FBI will come to learn, with no
one else's eyes on the secret account,

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At 00:06:49,980, Character said: Cronwell is free to divert the city's
money into her personal business.

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At 00:06:54,260, Character said: And she does.

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At 00:06:55,740, Character said: It has become known as the single
largest municipal fraud in U .S.

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At 00:07:00,830, Character said: When American Greed returns, Rita
Cronwell uses Dixon's money to become a

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