(MCT) — CHICAGO — Rita Crundwell, the disgraced former Dixon treasurer who stole tens of millions of dollars from city coffers to fund a lavish lifestyle, is appealing her recent sentence of almost 20 years in prison.

A federal judge in Rockford imposed a sentence of 19 years and 7 months in prison last month, citing the “sheer magnitude” of her fraud scheme. Crundwell siphoned almost $54 million from the northwestern Illinois city over 22 years, enabling her to finance a championship quarter horse breeding operation, buy up real estate and purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry.