Stephanie Hockridge, a former Phoenix News, turned into Fintech entrepreneurs, has been convicted of plotting wire fraud in a federal case that includes hundreds of millions of dollars in Covid relief funds.
A jury in the northern district of Texas found Hockridge guilty of a plot charge to commit wire fraud. She was acquitted of four additional accusations of wire fraud. The sentence is set for October 10.
Hockridge’s sentence was notified on Friday.
According to federal prosecutors and investigative reports, Hockridge and her husband, Nathan Reis, fraudulently received over $ 300,000 on credit for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for themselves, including a fake claim that he was a veteran and an African -American.
The couple’s Scottsdale-based Fintech firm, Blueacorn, which they founded in 2020, processed over $ 12.5 billion in PPP credit somewhere between $ 250 million and $ 300 million going to the company-including Hockridge.
Blueacorn received over $ 1 billion in taxpayers funded taxpayers to facilitate PPP loans, but spent less than $ 1 ($ 8.6 million) on fraud prevention and only $ 13.7 million to verify acceptability, according to a Congress investigation.
PPP was a federal federal $ 800 billion loan initiative launched in 2020 to help small businesses hold workers employed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was part of a wider effort – including grants, tax loans and urgent loans – aimed at stabilizing the US economy and preventing the closure of mass business and dismissals.
Investigators claimed that the couple used income to enrich themselves personally.
Congress said he received a video created by Reis and Hockridge showing large amounts of money on a bar on December 21, 2021. According to public data, Reis moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, who has no tax on capital, after his work in Blueacorn.
A video of October 8, 2021, received by Congress employees who found in San Juan showed Hockridge and Reis on the balcony of a luxury beach apartment.
According to a Congress report, Blueacorn routinely failed to properly verify the applicants and upload the illegal “success fees” to borrowers – violating the rules of small business administration.
The Congress report detailed how Blueacorn’s leadership instructed the staff to prioritize the speed of accuracy.
Internal messages showed that the reviewers were told to “push” controversial applications, ignore red flags, and pass identity controls if the fraud was not “extremely clear”. Some staff processed hundreds of loans without training – sometimes within 30 seconds each.
The subcommitte also revealed the existence of a “VIPPP” program that allowed customers with high dollars to bypass standard review protocols. The founders rejected the smallest loan applicants with phrases like “Delete them”, “Who cares for F -King” and “They Go Somewhere else”.
Hockridge, 42, was once a well -known face in Arizona’s families. She spent seven years as an anchor at KNXV-TV, ABC associate in Phoenix, and previously worked as a reporter for London CBS News.
She was nominated for an Emmy and was named “Favorite Newscaster” by Arizona Foothills Magazine.
Reis is scheduled to be tried in August 2025 on the charges linked. Prosecutors claim that he played a key role in running the company’s operations and handling its financial distributions.
Hockridge’s sentence marks one of the cases of Higher Profile PPP fraud so far that includes a public figure.
Fraud over Covid-19 relief programs was unprecedented in US history, with losses estimated at hundreds of billions of up to $ 1 trillion.
PPP, Economic Injuries’ Loans (EIDL) and unemployment insurance programs were particularly tangible – with guards reporting extensive misuse, internal abuse and systemic failure in fraud.
The post has requested comment from Hockridge and Reis.
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