KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Nevada, Missouri, man appeared in federal court on Thursday and embezzling $1.5 million from his employer and then failing to disclose that money on his federal income tax returns.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri said Justin R. Marquardt, 55, was the executive director at his employer, and thus had access to the company’s accounts from 1994 to 2023.

Marquardt told the court he stole the money from his employer’s bank accounts and transferred the money into his own accounts. He also wrote unauthorized checks from business bank accounts to himself.

Marquardt used the stolen funds on personal expenses like traveling and gambling online and at casinos, prosecutors said.

He’d hide his crimes by omitting the transactions from the company’s QuickBooks ledger as well as recording false payments as business expenses in those records.

Prosecutors said Marquardt failed to report his embezzlement income on federal returns for tax years 2017 through 2020 and 2023.

Marquardt pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return.

A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled. Marquardt faces up to 20 years in federal prison without parole on the wire fraud count and up to three years in prison for filing a false tax return.