{"id":271562,"date":"2026-08-24T23:40:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/271562\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T23:40:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T23:40:31","slug":"jennifer-rivera-arrest-lower-merion-school-board-member-charged-in-50k-theft-from-former-employer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/271562\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Rivera arrest: Lower Merion school board member charged in $50K theft from former employer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">LOWER MERION TWP., Pa. (WPVI) &#8212; A member of the Lower Merion school board is facing felony theft charges after authorities allege she stole more than $50,000 from her former employer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Jennifer Rivera, 41, is charged with four counts of theft by deception, as well as receiving stolen property and access device fraud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Police said the investigation began in June after officials at SMB, a law firm marketing agency, reported financial irregularities.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR zFTjo hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/19729923_082426-wpvi-jennifer-rivera-img.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">According to investigators, the company&#8217;s CEO and senior finance director said an internal review revealed that Rivera allegedly used a company-issued credit card for personal expenses dating back to September 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Police allege Rivera charged $1,339 for videography and photography services related to a bar mitzvah, spent more than $25,000 on a vacation for family and friends, and used the company&#8217;s Amazon account to purchase $25,596.68 worth of clothing, bathroom accessories and other personal items.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Authorities said the alleged thefts totaled $50,243.31.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Investigators also allege Rivera used company American Express rewards points, valued at more than $9,000, to book a future family trip to the Bahamas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Rivera surrendered to Lower Merion police on Aug. 24.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 2.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION TWP., Pa. (WPVI) &#8212; A member of the Lower Merion school board is facing felony theft&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[114343,183,185,184,186],"class_list":["post-271562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-114343","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}