Former attorney and former speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives John Diehl Jr., who represented Des Peres and parts of Kirkwood in the Missouri House from 2009 to 2015, was sentenced Monday to nearly two years in prison for committing $379,900 in pandemic fraud.
Diehl, 60, has already repaid the loan money. In September 2025, he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in the United States District Court in Saint Louis.
On Monday, March 9, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison by the United States District Court. He was also penalized $50,000 by the Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.
On March 30, 2020, Diehl applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan on behalf of his law firm, the Diehl Law Group, and was awarded $94,900. In March 2022, he requested a loan modification.
In both applications, Diehl stated that Diehl Law Group would utilize the monies “to alleviate economic injury caused by disaster.” He received $285,000 from the second loan, totaling $379,900. The Economic Injury Disaster Loan program was created to assist struggling small companies during the COVID-19 pandemic by offering deferred, low-interest loans for working capital, wages, and other fixed expenses incurred by the business.
“This defendant’s law practice didn’t suffer at all during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Assistant US Attorney Hal Goldsmith said in court, adding that Diehl did not use any of the loan for the firm.
According to authorities, Diehl moved around $200,000 of the Economic Injury Disaster Loan profits to the Diehl Law Group’s retirement plan. He was the sole participant in the strategy. According to court documents, he used loan proceeds to pay 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 personal cash withdrawals.
Diehl previously served as an alderman in Town and Country, Missouri, and as head of the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners.
Diehl entered into a consent order with the Missouri Ethics Commission in 2023 for improperly using $6,762.70 of campaign committee funds to pay for personal expenses unrelated to any political campaign and failing to report additional campaign committee fund expenditures, including at least $28,700 in personal expenses. Diehl was fined $47,392.