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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYale employee admits she stole $40 million
Last edited Wed Mar 30, 2022, 11:32 AM - Edit history (1)
A nearly decade-long scheme to steal millions of dollars of computers and iPads from Yale University's School of Medicine is officially over. Former Yale administrator Jamie Petrone, 42, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Hartford, Conn., to two counts of wire fraud and a tax offense for her role in the plot.
Petrone's ploy started as far back as 2013 and continued well into 2021 while she worked at the university, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut. Until recently, her role was the director of finance and administration for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale. As part of this job, Petrone had the authority to make and authorize certain purchases for the department as long as the amount was below $10,000.
Starting in 2013, Petrone would order, or have a member of her staff order, computers and other electronics, which totaled to thousands of items over the years, from Yale vendors using the Yale School of Medicine's money. She would then arrange to ship the stolen hardware, whose costs amounted to millions of dollars, to a business in New York, in exchange for money once the electronics were resold.
Petrone would ship this equipment out herself to the third-party business that would resell the equipment. It would later pay Petrone by wiring funds into an account of Maziv Entertainment LLC, a company she created. Petrone used the money to live the high life, buy real estate and travel, federal prosecutors say. She bought luxury cars as well. At the time of her guilty pleas, she was in possession of two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, two Cadillac Escalades, a Dodge Charger and a Range Rover. She agreed to forfeit the luxury vehicles as well as three homes in Connecticut. A property she owns in Georgia may also be seized.
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1089525660/a-former-yale-employee-admits-she-stole-40-million-in-electronics-from-the-unive
Jamie Petrone, former administrator,
Yale University School Of Medicine
March 28, 2022
https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Former-Yale-administrator-stole-40M-in-17034496.php
Jamie Petrone, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries up to 20 years in prison, and one count of filing a false tax return, which carries a maximum prison term of three years, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
Ms. Petrone has accepted responsibility for her actions and now looks towards sentencing, defense attorney Frank Riccio said in a statement on Monday.
Beakybird
(3,329 posts)left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)March 28, 2022
https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Former-Yale-administrator-stole-40M-in-17034496.php
Jamie Petrone, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries up to 20 years in prison, and one count of filing a false tax return, which carries a maximum prison term of three years, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
Ms. Petrone has accepted responsibility for her actions and now looks towards sentencing, defense attorney Frank Riccio said in a statement on Monday.
madaboutharry
(40,152 posts)I would be interested if there are any co-conspirators still working at Yale. It seem quite the scheme for one person to pull off for so many years.
Johnny2X2X
(18,745 posts)I dated someone whose father (coincidentally he was a Yale graduate) was convicted of embezzling $10 Million from a business he was comptroller for. He probably stole more. Well, they were going through his credit card statements, he was just blowing money like you wouldn't believe. It was free money and needed to be spent to help launder it, so he'd charter planes to take his friends to Vegas, buy $1200 in flowers for his girlfriend at a hotel in Paris, spend $30,000 on a tennis bracelet for his girlfriend from Tiffany's. He'd end up using credit cards to pay credit cards and recycle debt ten times over as a way of hiding the proceeds. The investigators ended up saying in court they wouldn't figure out how much he stole if they had 10 more years to work on it.
He got 12 months in jail and was out in 6. Lost his house, cars, and possessions, but he had friends who he probably stashed cash with and within a year after release he was back to living a normal life.
If you have $500K in ill gotten gains, the tendency is to just blow it on stuff that's not traceable. Expensive meals, wine, vacations with all the extras, clothes, days at the spa.
JHB
(37,132 posts)...likely at a lesser price, and after splitting that between herself and her fences, it's not as if it's sitting around in a bank account somewhere.
Johnny2X2X
(18,745 posts)No mention f how much time she is facing. Bet she gets a slap on the wrist and 18 months in a minimum security country club facility. And I guarantee she has assets hidden that she'll tap into when this is all over. White collar crime pays, totally worth it for her I bet.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)March 28, 2022
https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Former-Yale-administrator-stole-40M-in-17034496.php
Jamie Petrone, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries up to 20 years in prison, and one count of filing a false tax return, which carries a maximum prison term of three years, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
Ms. Petrone has accepted responsibility for her actions and now looks towards sentencing, defense attorney Frank Riccio said in a statement on Monday.
Johnny2X2X
(18,745 posts)Wire Fraud is probably 0-20 years.
Stuart G
(38,362 posts)SomewhereInTheMiddle
(275 posts)I am always amazed when I hear about people risking career, reputation, and freedom for miniscule amounts of money. I knew a professor at a state school that defrauded the university of ~$12,000. For that amount he lost a $60K+/year job along with various legal complications.
You hear that sort of thing with some frequency. People in well-paid positions stealing relatively small amounts of money and losing the much more lucrative paycheck.
If you are gonna do crime, do it like this woman. She stole significantly more than she was making. The reward was probably worth the risk, especially if she socked a few million away offshore.
I have never committed that sort of crime, and have no plans to do so in the future. But I have considered the hypothetical and decided I would never risk my job for anything less than 5x my annual salary, probably 10-20 times, given I am risking loosing that future income should I get caught.
Not condoning what she did, just saying the scale may have made the risk worth it to her.
Johnny2X2X
(18,745 posts)And I think what you see over and over in the paper for these embezzling/fraud crimes is that the perps only were going to steal a little at first, but then when they got away with it they just kept going and eventually something raises an eyebrow. There have been cases with convictions where some secretary was stealing $50 a week out of petty cash for like 12 years, it adds up. The perps probably don't even track how much they're stealing.
$40 Million is a huge amount though, the scam was probably a little more sophisticated than it sounds.
Chainfire
(17,308 posts)theft? Someone was asleep at the wheel.
malaise
(267,823 posts)on a decent hairdresser.
Throw away the keys. Universities lose so much money to these greedy thieves.
FakeNoose
(32,351 posts)Response to left-of-center2012 (Original post)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
BlackSkimmer
(51,308 posts)Thief.