Former Las Vegas City Councilwoman Charged for Charity Fraud Scheme

A federal grand jury returned an indictment yesterday charging a former Las Vegas city councilwoman and current Nye County, Nevada, justice of the peace for her alleged scheme to defraud donors to a charity to memorialize police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

According to the indictment, Michele Fiore, 53, of Pahrump, Nevada, a then-Las Vegas city councilwoman, solicited donations to build a statue honoring Las Vegas police officers who were killed in the line of duty. Fiore allegedly promised donors that “100% of the contributions” would be used towards the creation of this statue. As alleged, Fiore did not use any of the tens of thousands of dollars in charitable donations for the statue of the fallen officer and instead converted the money to her personal use. The donations were used to pay her political fundraising bills and rent and were transferred to family members, including to pay for her daughter’s wedding. 

Fiore is charged with four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Special Agent in Charge Spencer L. Evans of the FBI Las Vegas Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Las Vegas Field Office is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Dahoud Askar and Alexander Gottfried of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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Source: Justice.gov