Former Boston head of faculty pleads responsible to embezzling almost $40,000 of public cash

Colleges

Naia Wilson embezzled cash from New Mission College in Hyde Park and used it to pay for all-inclusive holidays for herself and her buddies.

A former Boston Public Colleges head of faculty pleaded responsible to misusing almost $40,000 in public cash on issues like all-inclusive private holidays in federal courtroom Wednesday.

Mattapan resident Naia Wilson, who was head of faculty at Hyde Park‘s New Mission College from 2006 to 2019, pleaded responsible to 1 depend of wire fraud, the Massachusetts U.S. Legal professional’s workplace stated in a press launch.

Wilson, 60, was charged Aug. 1 based mostly on allegations that she embezzled cash from the varsity between 2016 and 2019. She did this by secretly requesting college checks in different folks’s names, fraudulently endorsing the checks, after which depositing them in her checking account.

In complete, Wilson stole $38,806 in public funds. A few of that cash went to pay for 2 all-inclusive holidays to Barbados for herself and her buddies.

Wilson’s lawyer beforehand stated that she admits what she did was improper. He characterised her actions as a “modest lapse in judgment.”

New Mission is a pilot college, which suggests directors are given most autonomy over the varsity’s finances and spending. Federal prosecutors began investigating Wilson on the similar time that an impartial audit flagged New Mission College for slipshod recordkeeping.

Boston Public Colleges Superintendent Mary Skipper, who was not working on the district when the embezzlement occurred, beforehand thanked the U.S. Legal professional’s workplace for investigating Wilson.

“The Boston Public Colleges takes its duty as a steward of public funds very severely,” Skipper stated. “…Since these incidents, the Boston Public Colleges has carried out extra inner protocols and procedures to stop a scenario like this from occurring once more.”

On Wednesday, U.S. District Courtroom Decide Allison Burroughs scheduled Wilson’s sentencing for Jan. 9, 2024. The cost of wire fraud offers for a sentence of as much as 20 years in jail, as much as three years of supervised launch, and a high-quality of as much as $250,000.

However, so long as a choose approves Wilson’s plea take care of prosecutors, she is going to solely serve as much as 90 days in jail, be topic to 24 months of supervised launch, and solely should pay again as a lot cash as she stole.