A 55-year-old Nevada, Missouri man who spent nearly three decades as executive director of a local firm was sentenced Thursday to 48 months in federal prison for embezzling approximately $1.5 million from his employer and hiding the stolen income from federal and state tax authorities. Justin Marquardt was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release once his prison term ends.
U.S. District Judge Greg Kays handed down the sentence on August 27, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of the sentence, Marquardt must pay $1,387,926.39 in restitution to his former employer, plus $322,596 in tax restitution split between the Internal Revenue Service and the Missouri Department of Revenue. FBI Kansas City
confirmed the sentencing in a case update, noting that Marquardt spent most of the stolen money on personal expenses, including online gambling, casino gambling, and travel.
Nearly 30 Years of Unchecked Access
Marquardt served as executive director of his employer's firm from 1994 to 2023, a tenure that gave him direct access to all corporate finances and bank accounts for nearly three decades, per the Justice Department. That access allowed him to initiate unauthorized electronic bank transfers from company accounts into his own, and to write unauthorized checks to himself drawn on business funds, the same account states.
To keep the scheme hidden, Marquardt recorded false business expenses in QuickBooks accounting software and left the unauthorized transactions off the ledgers he handed over to accountants and tax preparers, according to the department's release. That bookkeeping cover-up let the embezzlement continue for years before it came to light.
Tax Charges Spanned Five Years
The tax portion of the case centered on Marquardt's willful omission of the embezzled income from his Form 1040 federal income tax filings across five separate tax years — 2017 through 2020 and 2023, the Justice Department says. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Venneman prosecuted the case following a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS Criminal Investigation.
Regulatory scrutiny of Marquardt actually began before the federal case concluded. In September 2025, the Missouri Gaming Commission passed Resolution No. 25-174, placing him on the state's involuntary gambling exclusion list because of his misuse of funds at gaming venues, according to the commission's own records.
Part of a Wider Anti-Fraud Push
Federal prosecutors categorized Marquardt's case under the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, an initiative established by executive order in March 2026 to target white-collar and financial crimes, the Justice Department notes. Reporting from NOTUS in July found that Missouri accounted for the second-highest volume of federal fraud prosecutions filed among all U.S. states, underscoring how the state has become a focal point for that broader enforcement effort.
Court filings reviewed for this case do not publicly name the firm Marquardt worked for, leaving open the question of how internal oversight failed to catch the diversion of funds for nearly 30 years. With sentencing now complete, Marquardt faces years of supervised release alongside more than $1.7 million in combined restitution owed to his former employer and tax authorities.
