Jamie Petrone, a former Yale University School of Medicine employee, pleaded guilty Monday in Hartford federal court to fraud and tax offenses related to her theft of over $40 million in computer and electronic hardware from the university, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut announced in a press release.
According to court documents and statements made in court cited by the press release, beginning in approximately 2008, Petrone, as part of her job responsibilities at the university, had the authority to make and authorize certain purchases for departmental needs as long as the purchase amount was below $10,000. Beginning at least as early as 2013, Petrone engaged in a scheme whereby she ordered or caused others working for her to order, millions of dollars of electronic hardware from Yale vendors using Yale Med funds and arranged to ship the stolen hardware to an out-of-state business in exchange for money.
As part of the scheme, Petrone falsely represented on Yale internal forms and in electronic communications that the hardware was for specified Yale Med needs, such as particular medical studies, and she broke up the fraudulent purchases into orders below the $10,000 threshold that would require additional approval, the press release outlines. The out-of-state business, which resold the electronic equipment to customers, paid Petrone by wiring funds into an account of a company in which she is a principal, Maziv Entertainment LLC.
In total, Petrone caused a loss of approximately $40,504,200 to Yale. Petrone used the proceeds of the sales of the stolen equipment for various personal expenses, including expensive cars, real estate and travel, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Petrone also failed to pay taxes on the money she received from selling the stolen equipment, which caused a loss of $6,416,618 to the U.S. Treasury.
Petrone pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, and one count of filing a false tax return, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of three years. She is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant on June 29th, 2022.
In addition, Petrone has agreed to forfeit $560,421.14 that was seized from the Maziv Entertainment LLC bank account as well as six luxury vehicles, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She also has agreed to liquidate three Connecticut properties that she owns or co-owns to help satisfy her restitution obligation. A property she owns in Georgia is also subject to seizure and liquidation.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Connecticut Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Yale School of Medicine” by Michael Marsland.Â
