HARTFORD, Connecticut: A former employee of the Yale School of Medicine, Jamie Petrone, 42, has pleaded guilty to fraud and tax charges.

She was arrested last September. The charges carry a maximum of 20 years imprisonment, and one count of filing a false tax return, which carries a maximum of three years. She is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29.

Petrone, who was employed by the Yale University School of Medicine in 2008, most recently served as the Director of Finance and Administration for the Department of Emergency Medicine.

As part of her job, she was allowed to authorize certain purchases for departmental needs below $10,000, officials said.

In 2013, Petrone began ordering millions of dollars of electronic hardware from Yale vendors using Yale Med funds and arranged to ship the stolen hardware to an out-of-state business, in exchange for payments to her.

She stated on Yale internal forms and in electronic communications that the hardware was for Yale Med needs and broke up the fraudulent purchases into orders below $10,000 so they would not require additional approval.

The out-of-state business then resold the electronic equipment to customers and paid Petrone by wiring funds to a company in which she is a principal, Maziv Entertainment LLC.

Federal officials said the total loss to Yale was approximately $40 million. They said Petrone used the money for personal expenses, including the purchase of expensive cars, real estate and travel. Also, she filed false federal tax returns for the 2013 through 2016 tax years, causing a loss of $6,416,618 to the U.S. Treasury.

She is free on a $1 million bond pending sentencing.