ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG—North Carolina’s higher education governing board received so many student complaints about a small Black Mountain Christian college with ties to a convicted felon that it has requested the North Carolina Department of Justice investigate the school “for potential unlawful misconduct, fraud, misrepresentation, and otherwise engaging in unconscionable behavior.”
N.C.’s higher education governing board has asked the NC DOJ to investigate Excel College in Black Mountain. This is one of the college’s main buildings on Florida Avenue. // Watchdog photo illustration by Katie Linsky Shaw
Excel College pressured its students into signing non-disparagement agreements, threatened them with legal action and misrepresented its academic programs, according to 19 complaints included in the University of North Carolina System’s request and obtained by Asheville Watchdog through public records requests.
“The complaints contain serious allegations of criminal and other fraudulent misconduct that warrant further investigation and enforcement,” according to a July 20 letter from Brad Trahan, senior associate general counsel with the university system. “Taken together, the allegations describe a pattern spanning across student safety, institutional governance, and academic integrity.”
Excel has not been contacted by the university system or the justice department and only learned of the letter from The Watchdog, said the school’s lawyer, Philip Roth of Asheville. “The college utterly and categorically denies the allegations raised by Mr. Trahan in his referral letter.”
Fourteen of the Excel complaints were signed, but UNC redacted the names and email addresses; four were submitted anonymously; and one was unclear due to the redactions.
The complaints include allegations of sexual misconduct between staff and students, accusations that Roth said “the college is utterly unaware of.” He said the school learned of one alleged sexual assault between students, investigated and both “denied any such assault took place.”
The UNC governing board did not investigate the complaints, which Trahan’s letter noted is beyond the board’s authority. An NCDOJ spokeswoman said the agency was unable to comment on the status or even existence of an investigation.
“In other words,” Roth said, “to date these are utterly untested allegations. And although the sheer number of complaints might be superficially titillating from a media perspective, to the college the sheer numerosity bespeaks only of the existence of a calculated and orchestrated ‘hit campaign’ by one or more disgruntled individuals that is devoid of an evidentiary basis.”
Nicholas Dimitris: ‘The overseer of campus life’
Little known even in western North Carolina, the college started in 2016, about 15 miles east of Asheville. Operated by CreatEd Institute, a nonprofit, the school in Ridgecrest near Black Mountain teaches students “a biblical worldview” where “discipleship and education come together to foster human flourishing,” according to its website.
Excel’s year-round program includes a two-year bachelor’s degree that costs $61,650, the website says, and credits may not be recognized or transferable to other institutions. “Unfortunately, many schools will not consider work from unaccredited schools like Excel College, regardless of quality,” the website says.
Each year’s class or “cohort” has 20 to 40 students, Roth said, and many do not complete the program, according to licensure records and former students. One recent cohort started with 50 students and dwindled to 18, according to a complaint forwarded to the NCDOJ. Roth said the school experienced a decline following Tropical Storm Helene in 2024.
Rather than a traditional campus, the school operates out of residential homes with a center on Florida Avenue.
Excel’s president and CEO is Vidar “Lee” Byberg, a former business executive and unsuccessful Republican Congressional candidate in Minnesota. But according to seven student complaints, the real leader of Excel is Nicholas Dimitris, a pastor who pleaded guilty in 2011 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison and ordered to pay $3.27 million in restitution, federal court records show.
Nick and Emily Dimitris were pastors of the now closed C3 Church in Asheville. // Source: Web archive for c3asheville.com, April 23, 2011
Dimitris was one of 11 people convicted in a scheme that used straw borrowers to obtain bank loans and funnel money to the developer of Seven Falls, a failed golf course and luxury residential community in Henderson County.
Companies owned by Dimitris’ wife, Emily, began buying properties in Black Mountain in 2016 that are used by the school for housing and other purposes, records show.
Nick Dimitris “is the overseer of campus life,” one student complaint said.
“Parents are told he has nothing to do with the school, but students confirm he is at all leadership meetings,” said another.
“No matter what anyone may say, the school is run by Nick Dimitris,” another complaint stated.
The Dimitrises and Byberg did not respond to voicemail messages seeking comment. Roth responded on behalf of the school and said Nick Dimitris is not an employee or board member and “does not otherwise serve in any formal capacity let alone ‘run’ the college.”
Nick and Emily Dimitris were listed among Excel’s faculty and staff in 2025 with the title of campus host, according to a document obtained by The Watchdog.
Licensure documents in 2020 stated that CreatEd’s bylaws required “a majority of the governing board to be made up of people who are historically loyal to Nick and Emily Dimitris.” Byberg wrote in response to questions from UNC at the time, “CreatEd feels not only comfortable with its affiliation with the Dimitris family but strengthened by it.”
Companies controlled by Emily Dimitris began buying properties in 2016 that are used by the school for housing and other purposes, records show. This site, formerly owned by a church, is on East College Street in Black Mountain. // Watchdog photo by Katie Linsky Shaw
‘They manipulated young minds’
Excel attracts Christian home-schooled students, according to the complaints and former students, and promises to teach life skills through a Bible-centered, structured environment.
But the complaints forwarded to the NCDOJ portray a school that tries to control its students, monitoring their activities and conversations, and silencing dissent.
“The staff and house captains were constantly reporting everything going on in the houses to all the rest of staff, if you were sick, if you had people over, who they were, what you watched, what conversations were had, and almost anything they saw or heard,” one complaint said.
Said another: “They stalked students. They became involved in their personal life. They manipulated young minds that had been homeschooled all their lives … It is like a cult. Very unnerving.”
Asked if students’ activities are monitored or tracked by staff, Roth said, “No, they are not.”
“For safety reasons, the college has policies regarding outside visitors” and rules addressing “the scope of acceptable activities/behaviors,” such as a prohibition on alcohol in housing, Roth said.
He called the allegation of stalking “ludicrous … Each student is assigned a coach/mentor who is committed to the student’s personal well-being and academic success.”
Roth said that while “some students come from homeschooling backgrounds, recruitment is generally broadly-based and multi-denominational.”
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Students, families threatened with legal action
Students and parents reported being pressured to sign an “honor agreement” that includes a statement of faith, a protocol for resolving disputes and a non-disparagement clause, according to the complaints, which included copies of the agreement.
Neal Hutchens, a lawyer and professor at the University of Kentucky whose research focuses on higher education law and policy, called the non-disparagement clause highly unusual.
“I expressly waive any right to file a lawsuit in any civil court against Excel,” the agreement states. “Furthermore, to facilitate and contribute to the fostering of positive Christian relationships, I agree that I will not make, nor direct or encourage any third party to make any public or private statement (including on any social media platform) that includes any reference, photograph, or material that disparages, defames, libels, demeans or criticizes Excel or any member of the Excel Community.”
Hutchens, who reviewed the agreement for The Watchdog, said, “This idea that an institution would seek through an agreement to muzzle its students in that way, I would say that’s rather extraordinary to see in higher education.”
Roth said that “without being naïve as to the prevailing ‘cancel culture,’ the honor agreements are intended to provide a healthy procedure by which to address conflicts as they arise between or among students and faculty.”
He said the non-disparagement clause is “both common in academic circles and a means by which to channel grievances through the agreed-upon procedure while avoiding a gratuitous ‘smear ‘ on an entity’s reputation.” The school declined to name other institutions with similar non-disparagement requirements.
The agreements have had a chilling effect on Excel students and families, according to the complaints.
“All the students live in fear because the administration holds this ‘honor agreement’ over their heads if they say anything bad about the school to anyone, including other students,” one complaint stated.
Roth called the allegation “wild and unfounded.”
“Honorable people have no problem with the agreement and I note in passing that the college enjoys a 5-star rating on Google,” he said.
A parent reported being blindsided with the agreement after arriving on campus for registration.
“We were not given time to read it carefully, take it away to review, or ask someone outside the school about it,” the parent wrote in a complaint. “We believe this was by design: present the document at the last possible moment, after the family is already financially and logistically committed, so that real, informed consent is no longer possible.”
Roth said students are required to agree to enroll and receive a grace period before the financial obligation. “They are given other agreements upon their arrival and have plenty of time to read.”
Hutchens said he was unaware of similar non-disparagement requirements by colleges. Even among private and faith-based institutions, which may require students to publicly uphold statements of faith, “I do think that it is very much an outlier that an institution would aggressively seek to police what students or parents had to say,” he said.
‘Cease and desist’
On behalf of Excel, Roth has sent “cease and desist” letters to families for allegedly violating the agreement, including to the parent who filed the complaint. The letter threatened “a defamation lawsuit and tortious interference claims, citing potential damages in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, based on a mere suspicion of critical statements,” the complaint said.
The letters give “fair warning to the individuals that they are violating the very commitment they made,” Roth said. “A spurious ‒ even subsequently recanted ‒ allegation” can damage reputations.
A cease and desist letter is “an olive branch,” Roth said. “A less accommodating institution could simply file suit.”
Hutchens questioned the validity of the cease and desist threats.
“It was difficult to discern what is the legal basis to assert that the institution had the right to muzzle students or parents about essentially their experiences as a consumer,” he said. “It just seemed to be trying to kind of bully people into being silent.”
One group of students who had been enrolled for 10 months and paid the school $14,000 each was presented with a new agreement in class and instructed to sign if they wanted to remain in the program, according to a complaint.
“They were not given any opportunity to consult parents, mentors, or legal professionals,” the complaint said. “After realizing in early 2026 that it was a lie to threaten them with expulsion to induce them to sign, some students asked the school to acknowledge the unenforceability of the honor agreement.”
“The school responded,” the complaint said, “with a letter from a law firm threatening them and their families with legal action if any reputational losses for the school ever occur because of the students or families.”
Roth said students are not threatened with expulsion. “A student was demanding to be released from one of the agreements and the college declined,” he said. “The student then threatened legal action while also disparaging the college at which point a cease and desist letter was sent.”
Excel declined to answer how many such letters the school had sent.
Complaints allege sexual misconduct, assaults
Some of the most serious allegations in the complaints involved the school’s response to claims of sexual misconduct and assault, including asking young alleged victims to leave. “The college is utterly unaware of any such accusations,” Roth said.
One complaint referenced “at least four sexual assault/sexual harassment cases.” Two involved a 16-year-old girl and two men in their early 20s, one of whom bought her alcohol and took her off campus.
Another complaint said a 17-year-old girl “got blackout drunk by a student in his twenties . . . She told me she was so drunk and had never felt that way before; she didn’t want to have sex with him, but she didn’t have the capacity to say no.”
One student tried to alert school leadership of the “inappropriate behavior I was seeing with the underage girls and adult men.”
“The girls were either asked to leave or kicked out,” the complaint said, “many still thinking it was their fault, even though the men knew better.”
“These allegations are simply not true,” Roth said. He said the only report Excel ever received “involved a third-party reporting alleged sexual assault that allegedly occurred between two students.”
“The college investigated the report only to learn that both the alleged assailant and the alleged victim denied any such assault took place,” he said. “For that reason, no report was made to law enforcement.”
Roth called the allegation involving the 17-year-old “hearsay…Assuming it happened at all, it was never brought to the school’s attention.”
In North Carolina, the general age of consent is 16, but sexual intercourse with someone who is mentally incapacitated or physically helpless because of alcohol or drugs can constitute second-degree forcible rape, a felony, if the other person knew or should have known of the condition. Providing alcohol to someone under 21 is generally a misdemeanor.
A former student reported one of the Excel incidents to the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office in June. An incident report provides no details except to say the investigation was closed because “the victim refused to cooperate.”
State declines licensure
UNC issued CreatEd an interim permit to operate in 2018, good for two years. The university system conducted a review in 2020 and staff recommended against licensing, state licensure records show.
Excel students live in a network of residential properties like this one on Dixon Drive, a men’s dorm. // Watchdog photo by Katie Linsky Shaw
The recommendation, which was included in materials for a July 22, 2020, meeting of a Board of Governor’s committee, cited several concerns, including:
– Several students said that a CreatEd recruiter told them the school was accredited or “would be by the time you enroll” and that credits would transfer to many or most other colleges.
– CreatEd claimed it was not affiliated with any denomination, but students described ties to an adjacent church, United, which was “led by Nick and Emily Dimitris.” Many of the school’s employees were members of United, the church used student housing for events, and “minutes of CreatEd staff meetings reveal a substantive relationship
between the two entities.”
– The school had moved operations from the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly to two residential houses in 2019 without notifying the state, as required by the university system’s policy. Several students said staff told them the college owned the properties, and in a Facebook Live recruitment video posted in 2020, CreatEd representatives “falsely described parts of the new location as having been ‘recently acquired’ by the school.”
In response to detailed questions from UNC, the college said it operated out of buildings “owned by New Day Holdings, LLC, which itself is owned entirely by Emily Dimitris.”
She also owned 20.34 percent of Rivendell Worldview Education Co., which provided Excel’s curriculum. Byberg, the school president, owned “just under 20 percent,” the response said.
It said arrangements between the school and the Dimitrises were “processed through entities which are legally owned fully by Emily and not Nick.”
Nick Dimitris had shared “his unique story of why he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve in prison” with the college’s board, the response said. “No doubt those not familiar with the story and the workings of the legal system may have questions about Nick Dimitris’ past. However, Nick’s experience is of the past and everything CreatEd observed affirmed that both Emily and Nick are credible, ethical and professional in their conduct.”
The Board of Governors committee declined to extend the permit, and the school subsequently applied for and received a religious exemption from licensure in 2020.
UNC suspended the exemption in April 2025 for failing to respond to an annual inquiry. The suspension was lifted after Excel responded to the most recent inquiry, according to Trahan’s letter to the NCDOJ.
The university system lacks legal authority to investigate or revoke a religious institution’s exemption based on student complaints, which “is why we promptly referred the complaints to the Department of Justice,” Trahan said in response to questions from The Watchdog.
Under state law, the Board of Governors’ role with religiously exempt schools is limited to determining whether their degree programs qualify as religious education.
Rather than a traditional campus, the school operates out of residential homes, like this women’s dorm on Florida Avenue. // Watchdog photo by Katie Linsky Shaw
Complaints ‘warrant an investigation’
Trahan’s letter to the NCDOJ summarized seven areas of concern identified in the complaints, including sexual misconduct, the nondisclosure agreements, threats of legal action, and “association with a felon.”
The higher education board asked the NCDOJ to:
– Investigate Excel’s “current operations and public representations;”
– Investigate “all current and forthcoming student complaints for criminal misconduct and prosecute as appropriate;”
– Evaluate whether “ongoing conduct constitutes unfair or deceptive practices affecting North Carolina consumers;”
– Pursue civil and criminal remedies, including fines, penalties and referrals;
– Take additional steps “to protect current and prospective North Carolina students.”
“It is evident that the complaints received regarding Excel College are neither isolated nor limited to a single category of conduct,” the letter said. “The volume, consistency, and severity of these complaints warrant an investigation and enforcement by the proper authorities—the North Carolina Department of Justice.”
Roth said Excel plans to submit a response to the UNC referral letter no later than Wednesday. “Among other things it will challenge the narrative that the College has been unresponsive to UNC inquiries ‒ just the opposite, actually,” he wrote in an email Sunday.
This article was originally published by Asheville Watchdog. It is reprinted with permission.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
MAIN PHOTO: N.C.’s higher education governing board has asked the NC DOJ to investigate Excel College in Black Mountain. This is one of the college’s main buildings on Florida Avenue. // Watchdog photo illustration by Katie Linsky Shaw
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