Nevada ‘pro-police’ politician faces federal wire fraud charges
Former Nevada Assemblywoman and current Nye County justice of the peace Michele Fiore was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday, July 16, 2024. She faces four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The maximum penalty Fiore could face if convicted is 20 years in prison on each count. According to a statement from the Department of Justice, Fiore solicited donations to build a statue honoring Las Vegas police officers who were killed in the line of duty.
She was a Las Vegas City Council member for the city’s Ward 6 at the time and promised donors that “100% of the contributions” would be used for the statue. Justice officials allege Fiore did not use any donated funds for the statues. Instead, they said, she used the tens of thousands of dollars to pay for political fundraising bills, rent, her daughter’s wedding and transferred some money to family members.
This isn’t the first time Fiore’s financial activities have been in the spotlight. In July 2020, The Nevada Independent reported that a Fiore-led political action committee paid nearly $109,000 to a special event and advertising company owned by her daughter, Sheena Siegel.
In that report, Fiore said her financial reporting was accurate and legal, but an elections attorney said she “takes her contributors … for marks. She’s betting either that no one cares or no one can stop her.”
Fiore has also pushed her pro-police stance through community appearances at various park and statue unveilings honoring fallen police officers.
In 2018, as a Las Vegas City Council member, she attended a groundbreaking for Alyn Beck Park, named in honor of a Metropolitan Police Department officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that at the groundbreaking, Fiore pledged to “improve the park by erecting a bronze statue” of Beck and his partner Igor Soldo, who was also killed in the shooting. The Review-Journal also reported in 2022 that Fiore, closing out her council member term at the time, spoke at the unveiling of a statue honoring MPD Lt. Erik Lloyd.
Fiore has courted controversy for years for her personal and political stances. She has claimed cancer is a fungus and mass shootings are caused by medications used for mental health conditions.
In 2022, during her short-lived run for Nevada governor, Fiore ran a campaign ad touting herself as a gun-toting Trump supporter. That same year, she defended two men who threatened and harassed then-Gov. Steve Sisolak and his wife at a Las Vegas restaurant, suggesting that physical violence could be next.
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