Former Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore was convicted Thursday of federal fraud after she used donations intended for a fallen police officer’s memorial for her personal gain, spelling doom for the conservative who nearly won the state treasurer two years ago of Nevada.

A Las Vegas jury convicted Fiore, 54, of six counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. She will be sentenced on January 6 and received little reaction when Judge Jennifer Dorsey read the verdict.

Michael Sanft, Fiore’s attorney, said after the ruling that they will explore all possible appeals but are now focusing on sentencing. Fiore declined to answer most questions from reporters, saying the case is still ongoing. She reaffirmed that there are facts that the jury and public are not aware of regarding the case, but declined to explain what they are.

The verdict capped a trial that included testimony from dozens of witnesses, including Gov. Joe Lombardo, FBI agents, local business owners and Fiore’s daughter. Fiore declined to testify.

The case centered on the construction of a statue honoring Alyn Beck, a Las Vegas police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 2014. Federal prosecutors accused Fiore — for six months in 2019 and 2020 while she served as a council member — of soliciting donations from her. PAC and nonprofit to build the statue, but use the money for personal use, including her rent, plastic surgery and another daughter’s wedding.

“She never cared about Officer Beck’s memory or his sacrifice,” federal prosecutor Alexander Gottfried said in his closing arguments Thursday. ‘She took the money from those donors. She took over from people who were trying to do something good.”

Sanft argued that the prosecution’s evidence was not beyond a reasonable doubt – the level necessary to prove guilt – because they did not have receipts for all monetary transactions in the case and that Fiore’s signature was never on any of the transactions involved. transactions were listed. He has also heavily scrutinized the FBI’s 2021 search of Fiore’s home, arguing that it was sloppy, outside the scope of the investigation and attempted to inappropriately portray Fiore as someone who had a lavish lifestyle.

A real estate group, Olympia Companies, originally agreed to pay for half of the statue but ended up footing the entire bill, according to testimony from Chris Armstrong, a director of the company. The statue’s sculptor also testified that Fiore never gave money for the monument.

Several witnesses have stated that Fiore had promised to use their donations to fund the statue, but they were never contacted about the fact that the money was no longer needed and they were not fully reimbursed. Others who testified about giving Fiore money for the statue included Tommy White, the secretary-treasurer of Laborers Local 872, attorney Peter Palivos and former Henderson Mayor Robert Groesbeck.

Included in the evidence was an October 2019 letter from Fiore — which prosecutors said came after she knew the statue would not need a source of funding — asking for donations and promising that 100 percent would be used to fund the statue.

This letter was recovered during the search of Fiore’s home. According to Fiore’s attorney, this was proof that the letter was never actually released, but several donors stated that they had received similar requests for donations from Fiore. A request for a donation to White, whose union represents Las Vegas construction workers, was sent in February 2020, days after the statue was unveiled to the public.

Follow the money

In several cases, Fiore’s nonprofit and PAC transferred money (which prosecutors said was intended for the memorial) to her daughter, Sheena Siegel. files provided by the Public Prosecution Service.

For example, on August 29, 2019, a check for $3,700 was written from Fiore’s PAC to Siegel. That same day, prosecutors argued that Siegel cashed that check and that someone made a $3,620 payment to Fiore’s plastic surgeon.

Exactly two months later, Fiore wrote two checks from her nonprofit: one for $4,500 to Hamlet Events, Siegel’s event planning company, and the other for $5,000. That same day, someone makes a $5,000 payment to a company providing services for her daughter’s impending wedding.

A week later, Siegel withdrew $4,500 from Hamlet Events’ account and a $4,500 payment was made to the wedding vendor the same day.

“She spent money as it came in,” Gottfried said in closing.

Additionally, Lombardo testified that Fiore had contacted him (while he was sheriff of Clark County) requesting donations for the statue. His campaign account sent a $5,000 check to Fiore’s PAC, and an FBI agent testified that shortly afterwards, $5,000 was transferred to Fiore’s daughter’s account to purchase a money order to cover Fiore’s rent.

However, no receipts were available for all these transactions because the payments were probably made in cash. Therefore, Fiore’s attorney argued, there was not sufficient evidence that the money intended for the fallen officer’s memorial was used for Fiore’s personal use.

“They want you to make that leap and say, ‘OK, it fits the timing, so as a result there’s no reasonable doubt,’” Sanft said in his closing argument Thursday.

However, the prosecution did have evidence showing where Fiore’s nonprofit and PAC spent their money over the approximately six-month period to cover the charges. Records showed that the nonprofit — A Bright Present Foundation — paid about $77,000 in expenses, including more than $23,000 to Hamlet Events, nearly $14,000 to Siegel and more than $7,000 to Fiore’s political consulting firm.

Fiore reimbursed one donor — Las Vegas lobbyist Jay Brown — about $17,000 through her nonprofit, but another donor of about $10,000 was not reimbursed.

In his closing arguments, Sanft asked the jurors a series of hypothetical questions, raising the question of where this money ultimately ended up. He also questioned allegations that Fiore used the donations to pay rent and for her daughter’s wedding, arguing that rent checks were incomplete and wondering why the bride and groom at the wedding in question were never asked to to testify.

End of a political career?

Fiore first entered Nevada’s political world in 2012 by winning a race for the State Assembly and quickly rose through the ranks, but she lost leadership positions before the 2015 session amid controversy over more than $1 million in tax liens .

In 2016, she ran for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District and finished third in the GOP primary. A year later, she successfully ran for Ward 6 on the Las Vegas City Council and eventually became mayor pro tempore of the city, a position she held until her resignation in 2020. Her resignation came after she reportedly said: “If there is an opening and my white ass is better qualified than someone’s black ass, then my white ass should get the job,” although Fiore denied this was the reason for her firing.

She was also sued by fellow city council member Victoria Seaman, who alleged Fiore created a hostile workplace and physically assaulted her. Seaman was one of the victims in the federal fraud case, although she did not testify.

In 2022, she narrowly lost a bid for state treasurer — in which she appeared in a campaign ad shooting beer bottles labeled “vaccine mandate” and “CRT” (critical race theory), saying she didn’t mind people bringing guns. to courtrooms because “an armed society is a polite society.” Soon after, she was appointed justice of the peace in rural Nye County, immediately winning another term this year.

She is also no stranger to the spotlight.

In 2015, she released a gun-themed calendar and has been particularly outspoken in support of the Bundy family, who were at the center of the infamous standoff over cattle grazing on federal land. After her fraud indictment, Fiore accused prosecutors of the same type of misconduct as they did with the Bundy family.

Updated 10/24/24 at 3:24 PM with more case details and comments from Fiore and her attorney.