Stephanie Reis’s Blueacorn Case: Verdict, Sentence, and Appeal

Former Phoenix television news anchor Stephanie Hockridge, who also goes by Stephanie Reis, was sentenced on November 21, 2025, to ten years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $63 million in restitution for her role in the Blueacorn Paycheck Protection Program fraud scheme. A federal jury in the Northern District of Texas had convicted her in June 2025 of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for co-founding and running the fintech company, which processed fraudulent PPP loan applications during the COVID-19 pandemic.¹

What Blueacorn Did

Hockridge anchored at ABC15 in Phoenix from 2011 to 2018.² In April 2020, as the federal government launched the PPP, she and her husband Nathan Reis co-founded Blueacorn in Scottsdale, Arizona.³

Blueacorn was not a bank. It operated as a lender service provider, collecting and reviewing PPP loan applications and routing them through two SBA-approved lenders, Prestamos CDFI and Capital Plus Financial. The SBA paid lender fees on each approved loan, and Blueacorn took a cut. The company handled roughly 1.7 million applications and helped process billions of dollars in loans.⁴

Layered on top of the legitimate operation, prosecutors said, was a fraud they called the “VIPPP” program. Hockridge, Reis, and co-conspirators coached borrowers on how to submit false loan applications, fabricating payroll records, tax documents, and bank statements to inflate loan amounts and generate higher fees. Borrowers paid kickbacks calculated as a percentage of the loan funds they received.⁵¹ Hockridge personally recruited people to work as “VIPPP referral agents” who carried out the coaching.⁶

Indictment and Trial Verdict

A federal grand jury indicted Hockridge and Reis in November 2024 in the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, in case number 4:24-cr-00287, assigned to Chief District Judge Reed O’Connor.⁷ Each faced one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud, with each count carrying a maximum of 20 years in prison.⁸

On June 20, 2025, the jury convicted Hockridge on the conspiracy count and acquitted her on all four wire fraud counts.⁵ The government’s 91-page exhibit list at trial included encrypted WhatsApp messages about Blueacorn business, text messages referring to a loan application that “looks like fraud,” and a photograph of a woman in a bathtub holding stacks of cash.⁹

Before sentencing, Hockridge’s defense moved for a new trial, arguing that prosecutors had violated their Brady v. Maryland obligation to disclose material evidence. Judge O’Connor denied the motion on November 20, 2025, finding the evidence at issue was neither suppressed nor material.¹⁰

The Sentence

Judge O’Connor imposed the ten-year prison term and $63 million restitution order the day after denying the new-trial motion. He acknowledged that ten years represented a substantial downward departure from the federal sentencing guidelines, citing Hockridge’s lack of criminal history, her community standing, and support from family and friends. Prison time was still warranted, he said, because she and her co-conspirators “capitalized on a generous government program intended to help Americans through a devastating pandemic.”¹¹

She was initially ordered to surrender on December 30, 2025. Judge O’Connor later extended that date to January 30, 2026, to consider her attorney’s request that she remain free pending appeal and a request to stagger her sentence with her husband’s so that both parents would not be incarcerated at once, given the couple’s one-year-old son.¹² After sentencing she was released with an ankle monitor while awaiting surrender.¹³

Her Husband and the Third Co-Conspirator

Nathan Reis pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in August 2025 and received the same ten-year prison term, plus two years of supervised release and more than $66 million in restitution. The court ordered him to pay $2.5 million within two weeks, with the balance owed jointly with Hockridge and co-conspirator Jimmy Flores. He was designated to the Federal Correctional Institution in Bastrop, Texas.¹⁴ His surrender date was pushed from January 20, 2026 to February 2, 2026.¹³

Reis also obtained a PPP loan for himself. Through his company Juuice Inc., he submitted fraudulent tax documents claiming he paid employees, including himself and Hockridge, and received a loan of about $69,870.¹⁵ A congressional investigation later found that on one application he had falsely claimed to be an African American veteran.⁴

Jimmy Flores, charged separately in case number 4:24-cr-00306, waived indictment, pleaded guilty in December 2024, and was sentenced in September 2025. His case is closed.¹⁶

Appeal and Where Things Stand

Hockridge has filed a notice of intent to appeal. Her attorneys asked the court to let her remain free on bond while the Fifth Circuit reviews the case, and that request was still pending in early 2026 alongside the staggered-sentencing request. No ruling from the Fifth Circuit on the appeal has been reported in available records.¹² After the PPP ended and before the indictments, Hockridge and Reis relocated from Arizona to Puerto Rico, where they reportedly started another lender service consultancy.⁴

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Co-Founder of Paycheck Protection Program Lender Service Provider Sentenced for COVID-19 Relief Fraud
2
ABC15. Ex-News Anchor To Be Sentenced Friday on Federal Conspiracy Charge
3
ABC15. Arizona-Based Blueacorn Questioned in Congressional PPP Loan Fraud Investigation
4
GovInfo. Select Subcommittee Report on Fintechs and PPP Fraud
5
U.S. Department of Justice. Founder of Lender Service Convicted for Role in Multimillion-Dollar PPP Fraud Scheme
6
IRS Criminal Investigation. Founder of Lender Service Provider Convicted for Role in Multimillion-Dollar PPP Fraud Scheme
7
GovInfo. USA v. Reis Et Al, Memorandum Opinion and Order
8
U.S. Department of Justice. Co-Founders of Paycheck Protection Program Lender Service Provider Charged With COVID-19 Relief Fraud
9
ABC15. Blueacorn Founders Scheduled for Wire Fraud Trial
10
GovInfo. USA v. Reis Et Al, Memorandum Opinion and Order Denying Motion for New Trial
11
Texas Lawbook. Former TV News Anchor Gets 10 Years in Pandemic Loan Scam
12
ABC15. Judge Extends Voluntary Surrender Date for Former News Anchor in Federal PPP Fraud Case
13
ABC15. Blueacorn Co-Founder Nathan Reis Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison in Federal Wire Fraud Case
14
AZFamily. Husband of Ex-Phoenix News Anchor Sentenced to 10 Years in Loan Fraud Scheme
15
AZFamily. Husband of Ex-Phoenix News Anchor Agrees to Plea Deal in PPP Scheme
16
CourtListener. United States v. Flores, Docket