Former Yale Administrator Stole More Than $40 Million From the University to Fund Lavish Lifestyle

A former administrator for Yale University School of Medicine pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing more than $40.5 million from the university by reselling electronics purchased with school funds, per a press release from the Department of Justice. 

Jamie Petrone, 42, was most recently the director of finance and administration for the Department of Emergency Medicine, a position that gave her the ability to make and authorize certain purchases below $10,000. But starting at least as early as 2013, Petrone used the funds to buy or have others buy millions of dollars worth of electronics, which she shipped to an out-of-state business that resold them and transferred the money back to Petrone via Maziv Entertainment LLC, a company in which she is principal. 

Petrone used the money “for various personal expenses, including expensive cars, real estate and travel,” the DOJ’s press release states. Petrone’s real-estate purchases include three Connecticut properties that she owns or co-owns and a property in Georgia. 

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Additionally, Petrone neglected to pay taxes on the money she received from the fraudulent sales, filing false federal tax returns from 2013 to 2016 in which she claimed the stolen electronics as business expenses. She failed to file any tax returns from 2017 to 2020, costing the U.S. Treasury $6 million. 

CNN reports the court has ordered Petrone to pay restitution totaling $40.5 million to Yale and more than $6 million to the Internal Revenue Service for failing to file and filing a false tax return and that, according to the FBI, Petrone “estimated that approximately 90% of her computer-related purchases were fraudulent.”

“The university thanks local law enforcement, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their handling of the case,” Yale University spokesperson Karen Peart told CNN. “Since the incident, Yale has worked to identify and correct gaps in its internal financial controls.”

Petrone was arrested on Sept. 3, 2021 and has been released on $1 million bond pending her sentencing in June.