Current:Home > ScamsRural Nevada judge who once ran for state treasurer indicted on federal fraud charges-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Rural Nevada judge who once ran for state treasurer indicted on federal fraud charges
View Date:2024-12-23 20:13:19
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada justice of the peace who ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2022 has been indicted on federal charges alleging she used money donated to memorialize slain police officers for political campaign costs, rent and her daughter’s wedding.
Michele Fiore, 53, the justice of the peace in Pahrump and a state Republican National Committee member, declined comment Wednesday about the five-count indictment filed a day earlier in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. The former Nevada state Assembly and Las Vegas City Council member said she had not yet seen the document.
Fiore is accused of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, crimes that each carry a possible penalty of 20 years in prison. Court records do not reflect when Fiore is due for an initial court appearance or whether she has an attorney representing her.
The grand jury said that when Fiore was a city council member from 2017 to 2022, she promised to use 100% of the contributions she solicited to erect a statue in a city park to honor two Las Vegas police officers who were killed on duty in June 2014.
“Fiore did not use any of the tens of thousands of dollars in charitable donations for the statue, and instead converted the money to her personal use,” prosecutors said in a news release.
The indictment refers to an unnamed co-conspirator who is related to Fiore and traces checks that prosecutors said diverted money to pay Fiore’s political fundraising bills, rent and daughter’s wedding.
Fiore served one term as a Republican in the state Legislature from 2012 to 2016, where she was as an outspoken supporter of gun rights and posed with guns and her family for Christmas cards in 2015. In 2022, Fiore ran as a Republican but lost the statewide race for state treasurer to Democrat Zach Conine.
She gained national attention backing rancher Cliven Bundy and his family during armed standoffs between militiamen and federal law enforcement officers in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014, and at a national wildlife refuge in Malheur, Oregon, in 2016.
Fiore was appointed by Nye County lawmakers in December 2022 to serve as a local justice of the peace in rural Pahrump, an hour’s drive west of Las Vegas.
veryGood! (5568)
Related
- Dave Coulier Says He's OK If This Is the End Amid Stage 3 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Battle
- Kamar de Los Reyes, 'One Life to Live' soap star and husband to Sherri Saum, dead at 56
- North Dakota Republican leaders call on state rep to resign after slurs to police during DUI stop
- Police investigating incidents involving Colorado justices after Trump removed from state’s ballot
- Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn is ending her retirement at age 40 to make a skiing comeback
- The year in clean energy: Wind, solar and batteries grow despite economic challenges
- Health workers struggle to prevent an infectious disease 'disaster in waiting' in Gaza
- Search resumes for woman who went into frozen Alaska river to save her dog
- Halle Berry Rocks Sheer Dress She Wore to 2002 Oscars 22 Years Later
- Almcoin Trading Center: The Development Prospects of the North American Cryptocurrency Market
Ranking
- Elton John Details Strict Diet in His 70s
- The Eiffel Tower is closed while workers strike on the 100th anniversary of its founder’s death
- Almcoin Trading Center: The Opportunities and Risks of Inscription
- Want to run faster? It comes down to technique, strength and practice.
- Quincy Jones' Cause of Death Revealed
- A top Brazilian criminal leader is isolated in prison after he negotiated his own arrest
- US ambassador thanks Japan for defense upgrade and allowing a Patriot missile sale to US
- Floods in a central province in Congo kill at least 17 people, a local official says
Recommendation
-
Giuliani’s lawyers after $148M defamation judgment seek to withdraw from his case
-
Turkey hits 70 sites linked to Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for soldiers’ deaths
-
Pregnant Texas teen Savanah Nicole Soto and boyfriend found dead, family says
-
Pistons try to avoid 27th straight loss and a new NBA single-season record Tuesday against Nets
-
Deion Sanders says he would prevent Shedeur Sanders from going to wrong team in NFL draft
-
'I just wasn't ready to let her go': Michigan woman graduates carrying 10-day-old baby
-
'Tree lobsters': Insects believed to be extinct go on display at San Diego Zoo
-
China sanctions a US research firm and 2 individuals over reports on human rights abuses in Xinjiang