Michele Fiore faces federal wire fraud charges

A Nye County judge and former Las Vegas councilwoman is facing federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly raising more than $70,000 for a fallen officers memorial and spending it on herself.

Michele Fiore, 53, of Pahrump, was indicted by a federal grand jury in an indictment returned and published on a federal courts database Tuesday. The charges relate to a fundraising campaign she conducted as a councilwoman, authorities said.

Fiore, who did not respond to requests for comment, was on the council from 2017 to 2022. She is currently a justice of the peace for the Pahrump Justice Court.

A former state assemblywoman, Fiore also previously served as a Nevada GOP national committeewoman, responsible for the party’s fundraising in the state.

In June 2014, Metropolitan Police Department officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo were fatally shot by a man who hoped to start a revolution.

The Las Vegas City Council decided to name a new park for Beck in 2015, which would be in Ward 6, the district she represented when she was elected. In 2018, when the city broke ground for the park, Fiore proposed creating a statue of Beck, the indictment said.

A company not named in the indictment agreed to pay for the statute, but Fiore told the sculptor, Brian Hanlon, that she had appropriated discretionary money from the city for it, according to the indictment.

And she used the project to raise money through a charity and political action committee between July 2019 and Jan. 2020, authorities said. She told donors the money they gave would pay for the statue or another memorial project, but that wasn’t how the money was used, prosecutors 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 Department of Justice said in a news release. “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.”

Pahrump Justice Court administrator Alisa Shoults said she hadn’t heard about the indictment, but that Fiore was scheduled to hear cases Wednesday.

A courtroom baliff denied a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter access to Fiore’s courtroom while she was on the bench Wednesday morning.

Las Vegas attorney George Kalesis said that he represents Fiore but declined to comment on the indictment.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal previously reported that the FBI was investigating Fiore’s campaign finances. The Justice Department said the FBI’s Las Vegas office is investigating the case.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.