Former Missouri Speaker of the House sentenced to 21 months for COVID fraud

(From the U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri)

U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Monday sentenced a former St. Louis lawyer who committed $379,900 in pandemic fraud to 21 months in prison and fined him $50,000.

John J. Diehl Jr., 60, has already repaid the loan money.

Diehl applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) on behalf of his law firm, the Diehl Law Group, on March 30, 2020, and obtained $94,900. In March of 2022, Diehl requested an EIDL loan modification. In both applications Diehl pledged that Diehl Law Group would use the funds “to alleviate economic injury caused by disaster.” He received $285,000 from the second loan, for a total of $379,900. The EIDL program was designed to help struggling small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing deferred, low interest loans for working capital, payroll and other fixed debts of businesses caused by the pandemic.

“This defendant’s law practice didn’t suffer at all during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith said in court, adding that Diehl did not use any of the loan for the firm. Diehl, he said, “saw a way to make some easy and cheap money.” Diehl transferred a total of about $200,000 of the EIDL proceeds to the Diehl Law Group’s retirement plan. He was the only participant in the plan. Diehl used loan proceeds for personal Tesla, Audi and Jeep vehicle payments, personal credit card bills, residential mortgage payments, fees paid to a St. Louis law firm for a personal legal matter, a family member’s college tuition, pool maintenance, country club expenses and cash withdrawals for personal expenses.

Diehl pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in September to one count of wire fraud.

“Although he legitimately obtained pandemic relief loans for his law practice, Diehl diverted those funds for personal use rather than the purposes Congress intended,” said Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. "Relief programs like these were created to help small businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic—not to line someone’s pockets.”

Diehl formerly served as an alderman for Town and Country, Missouri, the Chairman of the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners and the Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives. He resigned as speaker in 2015.

In 2023, Diehl entered into a consent order with the Missouri Ethics Commission after improperly using $6,762.70 of campaign committee funds to pay for personal expenses unrelated to any political campaign and failing to report additional expenditures of campaign committee funds, including at least $28,700 of personal expenses. Diehl was fined $47,392.

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith prosecuted the case.