Yale administrator stole $40 million from medical school to fund her luxurious lifestyle

A former Yale School of Medicine administrator is facing a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to operating a multi-year fraud scheme in which she stole $40 million from the school and used the money to buy herself luxury automobiles, multiple properties and vacations.

Jamie Petrone, 42, of Lithia Springs, Ga., admitted to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return on Monday in a Hartford federal court in the case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut announced in a news release. The false tax return count carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

NBC News reports that Petrone started work for Yale's medical school in the emergency medicine department in 2008. Most recently she was the department's director of finance and administration.

In her position, Petrone had the authority to make and authorize purchases for the department with a cap of $10,000, according to the U.S. Attorney Office's release. "Since at least 2013, she ordered, or had other staff order, millions of dollars worth of electronic hardware, such as Microsoft Surface Pro tablets and iPads, from vendors using Yale Med funds. Petrone then arranged to have the hardware shipped to an out-of-state business in New York, which resold the goods," prosecutors said.

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That business then wired funds into an account for a company called Maziv Entertainment LLC, in which she is a principal, according to prosecutors.

According to an NPR report, the high volume of equipment orders grabbed some attention at Yale in June 2020 but the purchases were 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.

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.

She also failed to pay taxes on the money from the stolen equipment, causing a loss of over $6 million to the U.S. Treasury, prosecutors said. Petrone is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant on June 29, 2022.