The former principal of New Mission School in Boston, Massachusetts, has been charged with one count of wire fraud for allegedly engaging in a scheme to defraud Boston Public Schools of almost $40,000 by misusing school funds for her personal use, including two luxurious all-inclusive vacation trips to Barbados.
Naia Wilson, who served as New Mission High School’s headmaster for 13 years, agreed to plead guilty and pay restitution, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday. Wilson will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.
The DOJ explained in its press release that New Mission School, a pilot high school, receives a lump sum budget from Boston Public Schools, and school administrators decide how to spend that money based on the needs of the school.
Given that pilot school budgets are managed by an external fiscal agent, that means Wilson, in her role as New Mission School headmaster, would have had to make a formal check request to the external agent for a check to be issued from a bank in order to spend school funds.
Starting around September 2016, and continuing until at least May 2019, Wilson allegedly requested checks from the external fiscal agent school account to be issued in the name of other people, fraudulently endorsed those checks to herself, and then deposited them into her own bank account.
Wilson also allegedly used school funds she obtained from the external agent to pay for two all-inclusive personal vacations to Barbados for herself and her friends in 2016 and 2018.
For both the two Barbados trips, Wilson requested that the external fiscal agent issue checks payable to other individuals who went on the trips and then converted that money to pay for the all-inclusive hotel and airfare, the DOJ said.
“Instead of working honestly on behalf of her students, Naia Wilson is accused of abusing her authority and using the school’s budget as her own personal slush fund to embezzle tens of thousands of dollars to fund two all-inclusive vacations to Barbados for herself and her friends,” Christopher DiMenna, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, said.
“Today’s charges should serve as a reminder to municipal workers everywhere that there are serious consequences for such shameful conduct, and it is the taxpayers they serve and answer to at the end of the day,” DiMenna added.
Wilson is now facing up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.
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