FBI ASKED TO REVIEW BENITEZ-THOMPSON’S UNR, CHARTER-SCHOOL OVERLAPS

A new request for investigation sent to the FBI is raising questions about whether Democrat congressional candidate Teresa Benitez-Thompson properly disclosed potential conflicts while simultaneously serving in the Nevada Legislature, sitting on the board of a publicly funded charter school and receiving pay from the University of Nevada, Reno.

The September 14 complaint, reviewed by The Nevada Globe, signed by Bruce Parks and addressed to the FBI’s Las Vegas field office, does not accuse Benitez-Thompson of committing a crime. Instead, it asks federal authorities to review what Parks describes as overlapping public employment, legislative authority, board service and financial interests, with particular scrutiny on Mater Academy of Northern Nevada and UNR.

Benitez-Thompson joined Mater Academy’s governing board while she was still serving in the Assembly. Her original charter-school application specifically cited her legislative work on Ways and Means, education budgeting and other government committees as qualifications for the position. Official Mater records later show her participating in discussions involving the school’s finances and expected state funding. During a June 2017 meeting, when the board was discussing whether state money would arrive in time to cover payroll, Benitez-Thompson asked when the school would receive a definitive answer on the funding date. 

At the same time, she held significant power over state spending in Carson City. Benitez-Thompson served on the Assembly Ways and Means Committee in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021, and was vice chair in 2019. The committee handles major state appropriations, including education spending. 

The FBI submission raises a second overlap from 2019, when public payroll records cited in the complaint show UNR paid Benitez-Thompson $6,000 as temporary teaching faculty while she was vice chair of Ways and Means and serving on its education-related budget work. The complaint notes that legislative records show her questioning Nevada System of Higher Education officials and participating in budget proceedings involving UNR and higher education funding.

One official Ways and Means transcript confirms Benitez-Thompson personally discussed a UNR funding decision during a May 2019 hearing, telling the committee she would ask the university about why funding for a research program had been cut. 

That overlap matters because Assembly rules required legislators who knew they had a conflict arising from a private economic interest to disclose it on the committee record or Assembly floor. 

The complaint says its author has not located a disclosure of Benitez-Thompson’s UNR employment in the principal NSHE budget records reviewed and asks investigators to obtain employment records, legislative disclosures and related communications. It separately asks investigators to determine whether she was properly screened from Mater-related matters and whether her board service and other financial interests were disclosed when required.

That distinction is important. The filing does not establish that Benitez-Thompson violated Nevada ethics rules, nor does it prove that no disclosure exists anywhere in the legislative record. It asks investigators to determine exactly that.

For a former legislative leader now seeking a seat in Congress, however, the paper trail has created a straightforward question: when Benitez-Thompson’s outside roles intersected with the taxpayer-funded institutions she had power over in Carson City, what did she disclose, and when?

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