A former Missouri House speaker was sentenced to 21 months in prison after admitting to misusing federal COVID-19 relief loans for personal expenses, prosecutors said on Monday.
As per the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk also fined John J. Diehl Jr. $50,000.
Diehl, 60, pleaded guilty in September 2025 to wire fraud after he confessed to defrauding the U.S. Small Business Administration out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through fraudulently obtained COVID-19 pandemic loans, prosecutors said.
“Although he legitimately obtained pandemic relief loans for his law practice, Diehl diverted those funds for personal use rather than the purposes Congress intended,” Chris Crocker, special agent in charge of the FBI’s St. Louis Division, said in a statement. “Relief programs like these were created to help small businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic — not to line someone’s pockets.”
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In a plea agreement during September 2025, prosecutors said Diehl admitted that he obtained a total of $379,900 in federal loans for his law firm from 2020 to 2022, in applications for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, a program created to help struggling small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, prosecutors said Diehl promised that his law firm would use the funds to “alleviate economic injury caused by disaster.”
“I take full responsibility for my actions and am truly sorry to those I let down. I apologize for the poor judgment I displayed that put me and those closest to me in this situation,” Diehl said in the statement. “I also regret that the woman has been dragged into this situation. The buck stops here. I ask for forgiveness. I will begin immediately working to restore the trust of those closest to me, and getting back to the important work that is required in the final days of session.”
Programs created during times of crisis, such as those introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, were designed to stabilize communities, protect livelihoods, and ensure that small businesses could survive unprecedented economic disruption. When such resources are misused, the impact extends beyond financial loss; it erodes confidence in the systems meant to support society during its most vulnerable moments.