Former BPS principal admits to pilfering nearly $40,000 in school funds; some of which went to Barbados trips for her and friends

Federal prosecutors today charged Naia Wilson, headmaster at New Mission School until 2019, with wire fraud, and she has agreed to plead guilty.

Although the charge of wire fraud carries a maximum possible sentence of 20 years, Wilson's plea deal calls for 90 days of incarceration, plus repayment of the nearly $40,000 she took. A judge is free to reject the deal, however.

The US Attorney's office says Wilson took advantage of New Mission's position as a pilot school, which has a different financial arrangement with BPS than other schools:

Pilot school budgets are managed by an external fiscal agent that contracts with Boston Public Schools. The school funds managed by the external fiscal agent were held in a bank account. In order to spend school funds managed by the external fiscal agent, Wilson, in her role as headmaster of New Mission School, would be required to make a formal check request to the external fiscal agent for a check to be issued from the bank account holding the school’s funds.

Beginning in or about September of 2016 and continuing until at least May of 2019, Wilson allegedly 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.

Additionally, Wilson allegedly requested checks from the external fiscal agent that were used to pay for two all-inclusive personal vacations to Barbados for Wilson and her friends in 2016 and 2018. For both the 2016 and 2018 Barbados trips, Wilson requested that the external fiscal agent issue checks payable to other people who went on the trips and then converted that money to pay for the all-inclusive hotel and airfare. Wilson also fraudulently endorsed the checks used to pay for the 2018.