Niebel, who did business as Tax Guy Chris in Allen Park, Mich., also worked seasonally as a Manager for a Party City store where he had access to the I-9 employment verification forms for those who worked at the store or had applied for work there.

In 2019, he stole forms which include data such as names, data of birth and Social Security numbers. He stole IDs of those who were not from Michigan surmising they were unlikely to to pursue unemployment assistance in that state.

Niebel opened several bank accounts to which the funds were wired and spent the money on a variety of person al items food, lodging, lottery tickets and gambling.

He faces a maximum of 20 years on the wire fraud charge and a mandatory minimum of two years for the aggravated ID charge. Any sentence for wire fraud must run consecutively with the ID charge.