The Brief<\/p>\n
Jennifer Rivera, a Lower Merion School Board member, is facing felony charges for allegedly stealing more than $50,000 from her former employer.<\/p>\n
The charges come after an internal review found unauthorized company credit card use and spending on personal items, vacations, and services, according to investigators.<\/p>\n
The audit found Rivera spent $25,596.68 on Amazon and booked a Bahamas trip using more than $9,000 in company points.<\/p>\n
NORRISTOWN, Pa. – A member of the Lower Merion School Board has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies after authorities say she stole more than $50,000 from her former employer in Bala Cynwyd.<\/p>\n
Business expenses flagged as personal spending at Bala Cynwyd company<\/p>\n
Timeline<\/p>\n
Jennifer Rivera’s former employer, SMB, reported her to Lower Merion Police in June 2026 after a financial review uncovered unusual charges to a company credit card and business Amazon account stretching back to September 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The CEO and Senior Finance Director told investigators that Rivera, 41, used company funds for personal expenses, including $1,339 for Bar Mitzvah videography and photography, more than $25,000 for a family and friends’ vacation, and $25,596.68 on Amazon purchases such as clothing and bathroom accessories, investigators said.<\/p>\n
Detectives said the total amount Rivera is accused of taking is $50,243.31.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The audit also showed she booked a future Bahamas trip for her family using company American Express reward points estimated at more than $9,000, which investigators say was unauthorized. Rivera turned herself in to Lower Merion Police on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
Rivera was arraigned and bail was set at $25,000 unsecured and ordered her to have no contact with anyone at SMB. She faces four counts of Theft by Deception, Receiving Stolen Property and Access Device Fraud, all third-degree felonies, authorities said.<\/p>\n
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Sept. 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
Information from the Montgomery Couny District Attorney’s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Jennifer Rivera, a Lower Merion School Board member, is facing felony charges for allegedly stealing more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[14421,114469,183,185,184,2248,186,87342,115978,51570,115550],"class_list":["post-276602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-bala-cynwyd","tag-jennifer-rivera","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-police","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-lower-merion-school-board","tag-montgomery-county-district","tag-rivera","tag-the-source-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276602","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=276602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}