Yale Med School Employee Charged with Stealing and Selling Millions of Dollars in Computer Hardware

Leonard C Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, today announced that JAMIE PETRONE-CODRINGTON, 41, of Naugatuck, has been charged by federal criminal complaint with fraud and money laundering offenses related to her alleged theft of millions of dollars in computer hardware from the Yale University School of Medicine where she was employed.

Petrone-Codrington surrendered to law enforcement today and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector in New Haven.  She was released on a $1 million bond.

As alleged in the complaint, beginning in approximately 2008, Petrone-Codrington was employed by the Yale University School of Medicine (“Yale Med”), Department of Emergency Medicine, and most recently served as the Director of Finance and Administration for the Department of Emergency Medicine.  As part of her job responsibilities, Petrone-Codrington had authority to make and authorize certain purchases for departmental needs as long as the purchase amount stayed below $10,000.  Beginning at least as early as 2013, Petrone-Codrington engaged in a scheme whereby she ordered, or caused others working for her, to order millions of dollars of computer hardware from Yale vendors using Yale Med funds and arranged to ship the stolen hardware to an out-of-state business in exchange for money.

It is further alleged that Petrone-Codrington falsely represented on Yale internal forms and in electronic communications that the hardware was for specified Yale Med needs, such as particular medical studies, and she broke up the fraudulent purchases into orders below the $10,000 threshold that would require additional approval.  The out-of-state business, which resold the computer hardware to customers, paid Petrone-Codrington by wiring funds into an account of a company in which she is a principal.

The criminal complaint charges Petrone-Codrington with mail fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years; wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years; and money laundering, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

Acting U.S. Attorney Boyle stressed that a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  Charges are only allegations and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This investigation is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of the Yale Police Department.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David E. Novick.