Ex-Yale employee stole $40M for cars and real estate, feds say. She’s prison-bound
A former Yale School of Medicine employee was sentenced to nine years in prison after being accused of stealing $40 million from the university, which she used to bankroll a lavish lifestyle, according to federal officials.
Jamie Petrone, 43, in March pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and filing a false tax return, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut. She was sentenced Oct. 13 in Hartford, Connecticut.
Petrone’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct 13.
But, after Petrone pleaded guilty, her attorney told The Washington Post that “Ms. Petrone has accepted responsibility for her actions and is remorseful. She now looks forward towards sentencing and repairing some of the damage that has been caused.”
Petrone worked in finance for the medical school starting around 2008, and one of her duties was to authorize purchases below $10,000, according to the release.
Around 2013, she began ordering millions of dollars worth of electronics, making sure to keep all purchases below $10,000 so that additional approval was never required, the release said.
Petrone then secretly arranged to sell the equipment to an out-of-state business, which wired funds into her account, according to the release.
She proceeded to use the money to snap up a collection of luxury cars, including two Mercedes-Benz, two Cadillacs, a Land Rover and a Dodge Charger, in addition to other goods, according to the release.
“For nearly a decade, Jamie Petrone lived a life most cannot even fathom,” prosecutor David Novick wrote in a memo to the court, according to the Hartford Courant. “She paid cash for several homes in Connecticut and Georgia. She drove expensive cars, including a Range Rover worth more than $100,000, and bestowed them on friends and family. She spent millions on fancy vacations for herself and others, luxury personal goods, VIP concert tickets, and spa treatments.”
University officials were later alerted to the scheme via an anonymous tip, according to the New Haven Register. The unnamed person flagged that a “suspiciously large” amount of electronics had been ordered by Petrone, who had been seen carrying them into her car, the outlet reported, citing court documents.
Petrone was arrested in September 2021, according to the release.
After her sentencing, a Yale spokesperson told The Washington Post that the university “thanks local law enforcement, the FBI, and the U.S. attorney’s office for their handling of the case.”
“Since the incident, Yale has worked to identify and correct gaps in its internal financial controls,” the spokesperson told the outlet.
McClatchy News reached out to Yale University on Oct. 13 for additional comment and is awaiting a response.
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