Yale University

Former Yale Employee Sells Millions of Dollars in Stolen Computer Hardware

The U.S. Department of Justice said Jamie Petrone-Codrington, of Naugatuck, is facing federal fraud and money laundering charges after allegedly stealing from the School of Medicine where she was employed

NBC Connecticut

A former Yale University School of Medicine employee is facing charges after being accused of stealing and selling millions of dollars' worth of computer hardware.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Jamie Petrone-Codrington, of Naugatuck, is facing federal fraud and money laundering charges after allegedly stealing from the School of Medicine where she was employed.

Federal officials said Petrone-Codrington was released on a $1 million bond after appearing before a judge Friday.

Beginning in 2008, she was employed by the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, and most recently served as the Director of Finance and Administration for the department. Her responsibilities included making and authorizing certain purchases for departmental needs, as long as the purchase amount stayed below $10,000, according to the DOJ.

Officials said that beginning in at least 2013, Petrone-Codrington engaged in a scheme where she ordered, or made others working for her order millions of dollars of computer hardware from Yale vendors using school funds. She would then arrange to ship the stolen hardware to an out-of-state business in exchange for money.

It is believed that she falsely represented the university on internal forms and stated in electronic communication that the hardware was for specified Yale medicine needs such as particular studies. DOJ officials said Petrone-Codrington would break up the fraudulent purchases into orders below the $10,000 threshold that wouldn't require additional approval.

The out-of-state business would resell the computer hardware to customers and pay Petrone-Codrington by wiring funds into an account of a company in which she is a principal, state officials said.

She faces imprisonment of up to 20 years for mail fraud charges, an additional 20 years for wire fraud charges, and an additional 10 years are possible for money laundering charges.

The FBI is investigating the incident with the assistance of the Yale Police Department.

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