A Milford Township, Bucks County woman has been charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the medical company that employed her as a bookkeeper.
Shae Kennedy Reber, 43, was arraigned Friday on seven felony counts stemming from the alleged theft of $365,109 from the Michigan-based company between 2013 and 2019, the Bucks County District Attorney’s office announced on its Crimewatch site.
Shae Kennedy Reber
Following her arraignment Reber was released on $500,000 unsecured bail set by District Judge Regina Armitage, according to court records. A preliminary hearing in her case is scheduled for May 5.
The district attorney’s office said in a news release that Reber was arrested following a nearly year-long investigation “which uncovered routine misuse of a company credit card for personal expenses and vacations as well as unauthorized check and wire transfers.”
“Through the unauthorized transfers, Reber effectively inflated her salary by tens of thousands every year,” the DA’s office said.
Authorities allege that while employed as a bookkeeper by the unnamed company part-time in 2015, Reber paid herself an additional $26,870 in addition to her salary of $61,740. The following year she allegedly paid herself an additional $29,514.
“When Reber’s employer made her a full-time staff member in 2017, she continued to steal despite more than doubling her official salary,” the district attorney’s office said. “That year, she took home an extra $67,532. Then in 2018, she paid herself $86,820 on top of her $129,000 salary.”
In addition to the transfers, Reber is accused of using a company debit card to make various personal purchases which authorities said included trips to Chik-Fil-A, tickets for air travel and stays at both a Walt Disney World hotel and in a luxury suite in New York.
She also allegedly used the company card for personal purchases at BJ’s Wholesale Club, to pay for a Netflix subscription and on iTunes, according to authorities, who contend Reber disguised transactions–including the large transfers to herself–by “mislabeling them in bookkeeping software as payments to insurance companies and other groups.”
The case was investigated by Pennsylvania State Police and is assigned for prosecution to Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber.
Note: Individuals charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
