-Avier Wanjou-Brass-

Cousins!

A former Yale employee stole $40 million in electronics for nearly a decade and it finally caught up with her!

Jaime Petrone, a former Yale administrator, is in serious trouble after she swindled millions out of the university. Recently, Petrone pleaded guilty in federal court in Hartford, Connecticut to two counts of wire fraud and a tax offense for carrying out a scheme. 

According to NPR, Petrone’s thievery goes as far back as 2013 through 2021 while working at the university. 

“Petrone would order, or have a member of her staff order, computers and other electronics, which totaled 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.” (NPR)

“Investigators said Petrone would report on documents to the school that the equipment was for specific needs at the university, like medical studies that ultimately didn’t exist. She would break up the fraudulent purchases into orders that were below $10,000 each so that she wouldn’t need to get additional approval from school officials.” (NPR)

The former director of finance and administration would purchase the electronics and ship the equipment to a third-party business that would resell the equipment. Later, it would wire money to Maziv Entertainment LLC, a company Petrone created.

According to prosecutors, Petrone lived a lavish life. She used the money to travel and even purchased real estate. Plus, she owned many luxury cars– two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, two Cadillac Escalades, a Dodge Charger, and a Range Rover.

Petrone’s scheme finally came to an end when an anonymous tip alerted Yale officials that she was ordering “suspiciously high volumes of computer equipment.” 

During her plea, Petrone agreed to forfeit the luxury vehicles, three homes in Connecticut, and property in Georgia. Also, she has to give up $560,000 from her Maziv Entertainment LLC bank account. 

I know what she did was wrong, but we ain’t knocking sis hustle. Cousins, what are your thoughts?