Former Yale Employee Bought Luxury Cars, Real Estate and More With Millions She Stole From the University

A former employee at Yale reportedly bought luxury cars and homes with millions she stole from Yale University.

On Monday, 42-year-old Jamie Petrone of Lithia Springs, Georgia, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. Her guilty plea stems from an incident in which the former Yale School of Medicine worker stole $40 million in computers and electronics from the institution. She flipped the school’s items, took the profits and spent the money on vacations, six luxury cars and several properties, according to prosecutors, NBC News reports.

In Hartford federal court, Petrone admitted to the crimes, which spanned over an eight-year period. She launched her scheme back in 2013; in total, Petrone robbed the school of $40,504,200. Petrone started working for the school’s emergency medicine department in 2008. Eventually, she moved up to the role of the department’s director of finance and administration, where she had the authority to allow purchases for the department with a limit of $10,000.

The news outlet reports that since at least 2013, Petrone ordered or approved orders for a slew of electronic products, including iPads, Microsoft tablets and other items. She then allegedly falsely reported the items on internal Yale forms and manipulated the costs to appear to be under the $10,000 cap.

It all caught up to her after she failed to pay taxes on the money from the stolen equipment and filed false tax retunes from 2013 to 2016. She was arrested in September 2021, and was later released on a $1 million bond pending her sentencing, said officials, NBC News reports.

Until her sentencing, the woman has agreed to turn over the cars along with $560,000.

On Monday, 42-year-old Jamie Petrone of Lithia Springs, Georgia, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. Her guilty plea stems from an incident in which the former Yale School of Medicine worker stole $40 million in computers and electronics from the institution. She flipped the school’s items, took the profits and spent the money on vacations, six luxury cars and several properties, according to prosecutors, NBC News reports.

In Hartford federal court, Petrone admitted to the crimes, which spanned over an eight-year period. She launched her scheme back in 2013; in total, Petrone robbed the school of $40,504,200. Petrone started working for the school’s emergency medicine department in 2008. Eventually, she moved up to the role of the department’s director of finance and administration, where she had the authority to allow purchases for the department with a limit of $10,000.

The news outlet reports that since at least 2013, Petrone ordered or approved orders for a slew of electronic products, including iPads, Microsoft tablets and other items. She then allegedly falsely reported the items on internal Yale forms and manipulated the costs to appear to be under the $10,000 cap.

It all caught up to her after she failed to pay taxes on the money from the stolen equipment and filed false tax retunes from 2013 to 2016. She was arrested in September 2021, and was later released on a $1 million bond pending her sentencing, said officials, NBC News reports.

Until her sentencing, the woman has agreed to turn over the cars along with $560,000.