A former television news anchor from Phoenix has been handed a ten-year prison sentence for her involvement in a massive Covid-19 relief fraud scheme that siphoned $63 million from taxpayer funds.
The Blueacorn Fraud Operation
Stephanie Hockridge, who previously worked at ABC15 television station between 2011 and 2018, was convicted by a jury in June for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Her husband, Nathan Reis, pleaded guilty to the same charges in August.
The couple co-founded a company called Blueacorn in April 2020, supposedly to help small businesses access Paycheck Protection Program loans during the pandemic. Instead, they orchestrated an elaborate fraud operation that fabricated documents including payroll records, tax documentation and bank statements to illegally obtain funds.
VIPPP Service and Kickback Scheme
According to the US Justice Department, the couple operated a "VIPPP" service that claimed to guide clients through PPP loan applications but actually coached them on submitting false information. They charged borrowers kickbacks based on a percentage of the funds received and recruited referral agents to push fraudulent applications.
Internal communications revealed Hockridge's disregard for legitimate borrowers. In Slack messages, she wrote "who [expletive] cares" about deprioritizing smaller loans and instructed colleagues to "delete them." In one instance, she directed a contractor to approve a VIPPP loan without proper review, stating: "No need to put your spot-checker on it – the file is good."
Massive Scale and Congressional Findings
The scheme's scale became apparent when a 2022 congressional report revealed that Blueacorn processed over $1 billion in taxpayer money for loans. The firm's partner lenders issued nearly three times more PPP loans in 2021 than banking giants JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America combined.
Hockridge will serve her sentence at the federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, where she'll join other high-profile inmates including Ghislaine Maxwell and Elizabeth Holmes. The case highlights the extensive fraud that plagued Covid-19 relief programmes despite government efforts to quickly distribute emergency funds during the pandemic.
