DETCOG Director and family guilty of money laundering

August 3, 2017

A federal jury in Lufkin found Walter Diggles, his wife, and daughter guilty of multiple money laundering and wire fraud charges. The former Deep East Texas Council of Governments director set up multiple non-suspicious and inconspicuous charities, such as the aptly named Deep East Texas Foundation in order to skim millions of dollars of Hurricane Ike payments into his pockets.  And throw off the bankers in Jasper, TX. His wife and daughter assisted in the fraud by leaving a paper trail of inflated billing costs that included personal vacation spending. All three are facing up to 30 years in federal prison and fines up to $1 million.(Source: KJAS)



Guilty, guilty, and more guilty.

Walter Diggles' annual salary at DETCOG was $150,000; however prosecutors presented over $500K in credit card payments during the same pay period. The extended Diggles family had received upwards of $50,000 of goodies which were forfeited. Several of their bogus charities had previously lost their tax exemption status, yet continued to operate programs within the Diggles' Lighthouse Church and illegally bill the government. Diggles was the DETCOG director from 1990 up to the FBI raid in 2014.



This is a microcosm of the entitlement mentality of those East Texas families who have convinced themselves taxpayer dollars and government services belong solely to them. This is what happens when regional governments give one group of people "unrestricted control of federal monies." (Source: Beaumont Enterprise) What results is colossal corruption aided by local sycophant politicians.

Walter Diggles was sentenced to 9 years in a minimum security federal prison in Beaumont, TX; his wife and daughter both received 4 1/2 years and will spend their sentences together in another low security federal holding center in northern Texas. (Source: Eastern District of Texas) The Diggles family was ordered to pay back the over $971,000 they laundered. The money has unfortunately dried up for East Texas politicians in the Diggles' back pockets, plus the feds are now looking at their agencies with a magnifying glass. With little effort they can discover more cooked books.