Wayne County Tax Preparer Charged In Fraud Case

DETROIT — An Allen Park tax preparer has been arrested and charged in a scheme to take pandemic unemployment benefits, federal investigators said this week.

Christopher Dominic Niebel, 43, was arrested Thursday and charged with obtaining unemployment benefits authorized by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act by means of false and fraudulent pretenses and representations by using the personally identifiable information of others that he had unlawfully obtained, according to acting United States Attorney Saima S. Mohsin.

A federal affidavit submits that Niebel was responsible for or associated with more than 100 fraudulent unemployment insurance accounts. The total amount of unemployment benefits paid through those fraudulent accounts by the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency from March through August 2020 was approximately $849,000, authorities said.

Niebel was the accountholder on at least 28 of the bank accounts to which the unemployment benefits were electronically transferred, officials said. The benefits included regular unemployment benefits but were mostly pandemic-related unemployment benefits provided through the CARES Act.