Cleo Fields

Cleo Fields missed campaign finance reporting deadlines by approximately two months each for his Louisiana state senate elections in 1995, 1997, and 1999. The Louisiana Board of Ethics imposed late fees totaling $2,980 across these three elections. All fines were paid in full. A 2019 late filing (10 days late) for another state senate election also resulted in a minor penalty. These violations were cited as a basis for denying his 2025 waiver request.

Cleo Fields Associates LLC issued a check to Paul Carney as an advance payment for painting and plastering work on a building that Fields planned to use as a law office. The check was later stopped. Ancona Stop and Save Inc., which had cashed the check as a holder in due course, sued Fields' LLC. The trial court found no intent to defraud but held that Ancona's had no connection to the underlying dispute between Fields and Carney. A judgment of $2,600 in damages and $500 in attorney fees was entered against Cleo Fields Associates LLC on November 23, 1999. The Louisiana Court of Appeal affirmed the ruling.

In December 2025, the Louisiana Board of Ethics fined U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields $2,500 for failing to submit a required campaign finance report, due in February 2025, documenting remaining funds and debts in the campaign account from his unsuccessful 2004 run for the Louisiana Public Service Commission (District 3, lost a runoff to Lambert Boissiere). As of the end of 2023 the account held $3,470 in leftover contributions and roughly $317,000 in outstanding personal loans. Fields asked the board in a letter to waive the fine, but the board declined at the recommendation of its staff, citing his history of late campaign-finance filings (he had filed reports late in 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2019).