A former principal at a Boston school has been charged with a sentence for fraudulently funding her lavish getaways with nearly $40,000 in school resources. Naia Wilson, 60, is required to complete 160 hours of community service and pay a $25,000 fine after her guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.
Wilson's two-year supervised release will include a 90-day stint of home confinement, according to details from CBS News Boston. While head of New Mission School in Hyde Park, she had to legitimately request checks from the bank for school expenses. Instead, she began to covertly issue checks to herself from September 2016 and continued the fraudulent practice until at least May 2019, funneling school funds to finance her personal vacations.
The Department of Justice detailed how Wilson deceitfully endorsed checks intended for others and then deposited these into her bank account, which was used for two all-inclusive personal trips to Barbados. These vacations took place in 2016 and 2018, with her friends unknowingly listed as beneficiaries of the expense checks.
"Beginning in or about September 2016 and continuing until at least May 2019, Wilson requested checks from the external fiscal agent school account to be issued in the name of other individuals, fraudulently endorsed those checks to herself, and then deposited them into her own bank account without the nominee ever knowing or authorizing her to do so," detailed the U.S. Attorney’s Office as reported by Boston 25 News. In their report, Boston 25 News also cited the authorities saying that Boston Public Schools cooperated fully in the investigation.
Wilson will also have to pay restitution and forfeiture, making good the full amount of $38,806, which she siphoned from the school funds during her tenure as head of the school from 2006 to 2019. The New Mission School, as a pilot institution within the Boston Public School system, granted Wilson significant discretion over its budget, a trust she abused for her personal benefit.
