Jamie Petrone was a former administrator from Yale University School Of Medicine who has just pleaded guilty to a series of charges in relation to her stealing $40 million from the Ivy League school. According to court documents Jamie Petrone admitted to stealing the money that was supposed to be used to upgrade the school’s computer system and used it to buy a fleet of vehicles and four homes. Apparently the scam was that Jamie Petrone would actually order the computers and iPads however instead of being delivered to the school they were sent to a New York business where they were quickly sold. Now Jamie Petrone is facing 30 years in federal prison. Makes you wonder how bad the Yale University computer system is now as according to Jaime Petrone she only used 10 percent of the money she requested to actually pay for new computers.
Jamie Petrone More News
A nearly decade-long scheme to steal millions of dollars of computers and iPads from Yale University’s School of Medicine is officially over.
Former Yale administrator Jamie Petrone, 42, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Hartford, Conn., to two counts of wire fraud and a tax offense for her role in the plot.
Petrone’s ploy started as far back as 2013 and continued well into 2021 while she worked at the university, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.
Until recently, her role was the director of finance and administration for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale. As part of this job, Petrone had the authority to make and authorize certain purchases for the department — as long as the amount was below $10,000.
Starting in 2013, Jamie Petrone would order, or have a member of her staff order, computers and other electronics, which totaled to thousands of items over the years, from Yale vendors using the Yale School of Medicine’s money. She would then arrange to ship the stolen hardware, whose costs amounted to millions of dollars, to a business in New York, in exchange for money once the electronics were resold.
Those purchases included iPads and Microsoft Surface Pros, according to court records.
Investigators said Jaime Petrone would report on documents to the school that the equipment was for specific needs at the university, like medical studies that ultimately didn’t exist. She would break up the fraudulent purchases into orders that were below $10,000 each so that she wouldn’t need to get additional approval from school officials.
Jamie Petrone would ship this equipment out herself to the third-party business that would resell the equipment. It would later pay Petrone by wiring funds into an account of Maziv Entertainment LLC, a company she created.
Jamie Petrone used the money to live the high life, buy real estate and travel, federal prosecutors say. She bought luxury cars as well. At the time of her guilty pleas, she was in possession of two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, two Cadillac Escalades, a Dodge Charger and a Range Rover.
In June 2020, the high volume of equipment orders grabbed some attention at Yale. But it was eventually explained away by Petrone, who said that her department was simply updating its computer equipment.
Her scheme continued successfully until August 2021, when Yale officials received an anonymous tip that Petrone was ordering “suspiciously high volumes of computer equipment,” court records state. These orders were made more suspicious by the fact that Petrone was putting some of the packages in her own car.
Later that month, Yale auditors dug into Petrone’s purchase orders and her emails, among other things — eventually turning over their findings to law enforcement.
At the time of her guilty plea, she agreed to forfeit the luxury vehicles as well as three homes in Connecticut. A property she owns in Georgia may also be seized.
Jamie Petrone has also agreed to forfeit more than $560,000 that was seized from the Maziv Entertainment LLC bank account.
Federal prosecutors say the loss to Yale totals approximately $40,504,200.
Jamie Petrone US Justice
Leonard C Boyle, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England, announced that JAMIE PETRONE, 42, of Lithia Springs, Georgia, formerly of Naugatuck, Connecticut, pleaded guilty today in Hartford federal court to fraud and tax offenses related to her theft of $40 million in computer and electronic hardware from the Yale University School of Medicine where she was employed.
According to court documents and statements made in court, beginning in approximately 2008, Petrone was employed by the Yale University School of Medicine (“Yale Med”), Department of Emergency Medicine, and most recently served as the Director of Finance and Administration for the Department of Emergency Medicine. As part of her job responsibilities, Petrone had 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, Jamie 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 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.
Petrone also failed to pay taxes on the money she received from selling the stolen equipment. She filed false federal tax returns for the 2013 through 2016 tax years, in which she falsely claimed as business expenses the costs of the stolen equipment, and failed to file any federal tax returns for the 2017 through 2020 tax years. This 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 29, 2022.
Petrone has agreed to forfeit $560,421.14 that was seized from the Maziv Entertainment LLC bank account, a 2014 Mercedes-Benz G550, a 2017 Land Rover/Range Rover Sv Autobiography, a 2015 Cadillac Escalade Premium, a 2020 Mercedes Benz Model E450A, a 2016 Cadillac Escalade (4 Door Sport), and a 2018 Dodge Charger. 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.
Petrone was arrested by criminal complaint on September 3, 2021. She is released on a $1 million bond pending sentencing.
This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, with the assistance of the Yale Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David E. Novick.
