Ex-house speaker is going to prison over $379,900 in pandemic fraud

Ex-speaker sentenced for pandemic loan misuse

Former Missouri House Speaker John Diehl is heading to federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk sentenced Diehl, 60, to 21 months and ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine.

He pleaded guilty in September 2025 to one count of wire fraud for misusing $379,900 in COVID-19 relief funds meant for his law firm. He can report to prison at a later date.

He applied for pandemic relief loans twice

Diehl applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan on behalf of his law firm, the Diehl Law Group, in March 2020. The program gave small businesses low-interest, deferred loans to help them survive the pandemic.

He got $94,900 that year. Then in March 2022, he asked for more and received another $285,000.

Both times, he promised the money would go toward business expenses caused by the pandemic.

He spent it on cars, clubs, and his mortgage

The money never went to his law firm. Diehl made payments on a Tesla, an Audi, and a Jeep.

He paid country club dues, pool maintenance costs, and his home mortgage.

He also used the funds for a family member’s college tuition, personal credit card balances, and cash withdrawals for personal costs. None of it had anything to do with running his law practice.

Most funds went into his own retirement account

The biggest chunk of the money went somewhere else entirely. Diehl moved about $200,000 of the loan funds into his law firm’s retirement plan.

He was the only person enrolled in that plan. After the first loan, he shifted about $50,000 in September 2020.

After the second, he transferred another $150,000 into the same account.

Prosecutors say the law firm was never hurt

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith told the court that Diehl’s law practice never actually struggled during the pandemic. Goldsmith said Diehl saw the relief program as a way to get easy, cheap money.

Prosecutors said none of the loan funds went toward the firm’s operations.

Goldsmith wrote in a court filing that given Diehl’s education and time in public office, he knew better than to commit the fraud.

Defense said he paid it all back

Diehl’s attorney, John Rogers, asked the judge for no prison time.

Rogers pointed out that Diehl repaid the full $379,900 to the U.S. Treasury before charges were even filed. He also cited Diehl’s clean criminal record and support from his family and community.

Prosecutors pushed back.

They argued repayment should not count as a reason for leniency because Diehl is a man of considerable wealth.

Judge gave him the lowest end of the range

Federal prosecutors had asked for 21 to 27 months. Judge Pitlyk settled on 21 months, the low end of that range.

She also added the $50,000 fine to help cover incarceration costs. Diehl addressed the court and said he was deeply ashamed of his actions.

He also used some of the COVID loan money to pay off a civil settlement connected to his time as House Speaker, prosecutors said.

His career ended in scandal a decade ago

Diehl served in the Missouri House from 2008 to 2015 and climbed fast through Republican leadership. Voters elected him Speaker in 2013, and he took office in January 2015.

He resigned on May 14, 2015, one day after the Kansas City Star reported he had exchanged inappropriate messages with a college freshman working as a Capitol intern.

Ethics fines came before the prison sentence

This was not Diehl’s first run-in over money. In 2023, the Missouri Ethics Commission fined him about $47,000 for campaign finance violations.

Those violations included using roughly $6,800 in campaign funds for personal expenses. The commission also found he failed to report additional spending, including at least $28,700 in personal expenses.

The federal sentencing is the latest in a string of financial misconduct findings against him.

His case is part of a nationwide crackdown

FBI St. Louis Division Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker said pandemic relief programs were built to help businesses survive, not to enrich individuals.

Diehl’s case is one of many COVID relief fraud prosecutions playing out across the country. As part of his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to pursue additional charges tied to the pandemic loans.

The $50,000 fine is separate from the money he already repaid, and his prison report date has not been set.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• Death by cottonwood: old Missouri’s underwater forest of terror
• From Spain to America in 24 hours: How the Osage lost Missouri
• Raiders stole this baby to sell as a slave — he grew up to revolutionize American farming