BEAUMONT, Texas — A Jasper man serving time for wire fraud and theft of federal funds was one of nearly 1,500 federal inmates who had their sentences commuted by President Biden last week.
Walter Diggles, 72, of Jasper, the former Executive Director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments, was serving the sixth year of a nine-year sentence in federal prison.
His sentence was commuted along with 1,498 others by Biden on December 12, 2024. His release date is now set at April 13, 2025, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
He along with his wife, Rosie and his daughter Antia Diggles, of Houston, were convicted on federal charges in 2017 after they were charged with a scheme to steal federal block grant funds that Congress appropriated following Hurricanes Rita, Katrina, Ike, and Dolly.
Diggles was convicted of 11 counts of wire fraud, three counts of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and three counts of money laundering. He was sentenced in 2018 to nine years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,326,049.91in restitution to the government.
His wife and daughter were each sentenced to four and a half years after being convicted of 10 counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Both were also ordered to pay $971,143.57 in restitution to the government.
Both of them have since served their time.
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
