OAKLAND, Calif. - The owner of New Horizons School in Newark has been charged with multiple felonies including wage theft, tax evasion and embezzlement, Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson announced on Friday.
The charges brought against 52-year-old Victor Dawson, who was the principal of New Horizons School as well as Mission Hills Middle School in Castro Valley, stem from a 2024 complaint alleging wage theft against 47 teachers and other staff members.
The charges
Dawson is facing two counts of felony wage theft, two counts of felony tax evasion, one count of misdemeanor tax evasion and one count of felony embezzlement. He was arraigned at the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland on Jan. 20, 2026.
In addition to the allegations that Dawson stole wages from 47 teachers and staff members, he is alleged to have embezzled retirement contributions from six teachers by deducting money for their retirement savings from their paychecks and using it for his own benefit.
He is also alleged to have evaded paying state taxes and payroll taxes by failing to file the necessary tax returns, while allegedly deducting payroll taxes from teachers’ paychecks and using that money for himself.
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"Parents trust that school owners will use tuition funds to educate their children and to compensate teachers for their hard work, not to enrich themselves," Dickson said in a press release. "This case represents a breach of that trust."
A civil case against Dawson includes the wages owed to employees, labor law penalties and civil penalties totaling nearly $688,000.
A new school
Dawson is currently employed as the assistant principal at STEAM Academy at River Islands in Lathrop.
Dawson first came under public scrutiny in May, 2024, after he emailed the New Horizons School community that the semester would end three weeks earlier than anticipated due to the institution filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The school had already accepted tuition payments for the following semester.
Two months prior to the email, parents learned that some teachers were not being paid. That news was followed by the revelation that the school’s utilities and lease were also unpaid.