A former Yale School of Medicine employee is accused of stealing computers and other electronics valued at around $40 million and reselling them in order to finance a lavish lifestyle, according to prosecutors.
Jamie Petrone, 42, of Lithia Springs, Georgia, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return in Hartford federal court on Monday (March 28), a District of Connecticut Department of Justice news release confirmed.
Petrone began her scheme in 2013, which caused Yale to lose a total of $40,504,200 during that span, according to prosecutors.
The 42-year-old began her position in Yale's medical school's emergency medicine department in 2008 and most recently worked as the department's director of finance and administration, which allowed her to make and authorize purchases of up to $10,000.
Petrone is accused of ordering, or having other staff members order, electronic hardware -- such as iPads and Microsoft Surface Pro tablets -- from vendors using Yale Med funds, with the items purchased exceeding millions of dollars in value.
She then had the hardware shipped to an out-of-state business in New York, which resold the items and wired the funds made into an account for a company known as Maziv Entertainment LLC, which she is listed as principal owner of, according to prosecutors.
Petrone allegedly claimed on Yale internal forms and electronic communications that the hardware purchased for resell was intended to be used for medical school needs and separate the purchases to be below $10,000 in order to avoid any necessary oversight.
Prosecutors said the money obtained in the resell financed numerous personal luxury expense, which included real estate, expensive cars and traveling.
Petrone was forced to forfeit two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, two Cadillac Escalades, a Dodge Charger and a Range Rover.
Additionally, Petrone failed to pay taxes on the finances she obtained in the scheme, filing false federal tax returns from 2013 to 2016 by claiming the stolen equipment as business expenses, which caused the U.S. Treasury to lose $6 million, according to prosecutors.