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October 14, 2022

Ex-Yale Med School employee sentenced in $40M theft

PHOTO | Courtesy Yale School of Medicine Yale School of Medicine
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo

A former Yale University School of Medicine worker was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison for stealing $40 million in computer and electronic hardware. 

U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa L. Bryant imposed the sentence on Jamie Petrone, 43, of Lithia Springs, Ga. Petrone formerly lived in Naugatuck. 

After Petrone serves her sentence, she will be on supervised release for three years.

Bryant ordered Petrone to make full financial restitution. Federal prosecutors estimate Petrone caused Yale to lose $40,504,200 in the scheme.

To help with restitution, Petrone is forfeiting $560,421 from her seized business bank account. She is also forfeiting 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 and a 2018 Dodge Charger.  

Petrone owns three Connecticut properties and a Georgia property, all subject to liquidation to go toward the restitution, documents show.

In March, Petrone entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return in connection with the workplace theft scheme.

Petrone’s attorney, Eugene Riccio of Bridgeport, in asking the judge for leniency, noted that his client cooperated with prosecutors, and met with Yale leaders following her plea. 

“Ms. Petrone’s focus is on her future and on her family,” Riccio said, in a memorandum to the court. “She is also focused on repenting for the poor decisions that she has made.”

Riccio said his client is a mother, and she is worried about the impact if she were incarcerated for a significant period of time.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David E. Novick, who prosecuted the case, urged the judge to impose prison time. Novick wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Petrone “quietly and consistently” robbed Yale.

Petrone “lived a life most cannot even fathom,” for nearly a decade, according to Novick.

“She paid cash for several homes in Connecticut and Georgia,” Novick wrote. “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.” 

Petrone worked for Yale for years, and ultimately served as a director of finance and administration for its Department of Emergency Medicine, according to the government.

In her position, she had the authority to authorize purchases below $10,000. 

Starting around 2013, Petrone ordered, or caused others to order, millions of dollars worth of electronic hardware, paid for with Yale funds. Petrone then shipped the goods to an out-of-state business in exchange for money, federal prosecutors said.

This out-of-state business, which the government did not identify, then resold the equipment. It paid Petrone by wiring funds into the account of a company in which she is a principal, Maziv Entertainment LLC.

According to the government, Petrone then used the funds for personal gain, including for the expensive cars, real estate and more than $4 million worth of travel. 

Petrone additionally failed to pay taxes on any money she received from selling the stolen equipment, and she filed multiple fraudulent tax returns, cheating the U.S. Treasury out of more than $6 million, prosecutors said. 

Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com.

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