An employee at Yale University’s medical school pleaded guilty to stealing and selling more than $40 million in electronics.
Jamie Petrone, 42, admitted to using Yale University School of Medicine funds to purchase electronic hardware and ship it elsewhere in exchange for money, according to a Justice Department press release.
The former employee pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one charge of filing a false tax return, the press release said.
Petrone was previously employed at Yale in its Department of Emergency Medicine, where she served as the director of finance and administration, a position that gave her the authority to make purchases using funds from Yale, according to court documents. While she needed to get approval from higher-level authorities to purchase anything worth more than $10,000, she made several purchases between 2013 and 2021 while avoiding that authorization threshold to send it to the third party, according to federal prosecutors.
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Petrone’s purchases were sent to an unnamed company, and funds were wired back to her through a company she was a principal, at which point the funds were used to purchase several luxury items, including cars, real estate, and travel expenses, officials said. Her purchases cost Yale $40,504,200, prosecutors said.
The employee falsely represented the purchases on Yale internal forms and emails, including claims that the purchases were for medical studies organized at the Ivy League university, court documents revealed.
The purchases were eventually noticed by Yale officials, who inquired about the excess purchase of electronics in 2020, according to court documents. Petrone waved their concerns away by stating that they were updating the department’s computer equipment, officials said.
In August 2021, Yale authorities received an anonymous tip alleging that “suspiciously high volumes of computer equipment” were being purchased, according to court documents. These purchases appeared even more suspicious because Petrone placed some of the packages in her car, records added.
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The Yale employee was arrested on Sept. 21, 2021, and released on a $1 million bond, according to the Justice Department. She is scheduled to be sentenced in June 2022 and faces up to 23 years in prison.
Petrone agreed to forfeit more than $500,000 in funds discovered in the company fund, prosecutors said. She also forfeited six vehicles and three Connecticut properties to satisfy her restitution obligations, according to the Justice Department.
