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Speed Over Accuracy

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Senior Director of Strategic Alliances
LexisNexis Risk Solutions - Government

Arizona Foothills Magazine’s “Best of Our Valley” awards has regularly recognized Stephanie Hockridge as “Favorite Newscaster” and particularly in the year 2014 as “Best Weekends Anchor.”  But this year, 2025, it is looking like Hockridge is going to clinch the nomination for Arizona Foothills “Fraudster of The Year.”  On June 23, 2025, Hockridge, a former Phoenix news anchor turned fintech entrepreneur, was found guilty of a COVID-19 loan scheme that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. taxpayer.

Hockridge, along with her husband, Nathan Reis, co-founded Blueacorn in April 2020, purportedly to assist small businesses and individuals in obtaining Paycheck Protection Program loans. However, it turns out that Blueacorn routinely failed to properly vet applicants and charged illegal “success fees” to borrowers under Hockridge’s orders – a violation of the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) rules.

Hockridge offered a personalized service to Blueacorn’s clients called “VIPPP” to help, and probably entice, potential borrowers to complete PPP loan applications. To get larger loans for certain PPP applicants, Hockridge and co-conspirators that she recruited and trained, fabricated documents, including payroll records, tax documentation, and bank statements, all for a “small” fee based on the percentage of funds received with the fraudulent applications. Hockridge also instructed staff to prioritize speed over accuracy telling them to push through questionable applications, ignore red flags, and skip identity checks unless fraud was extremely obvious.

In total, Hockridge, along with her husband, processed $12.5 billion in fraudulent PPP loans. While Blueacorn, as a company, received over $1 billion in taxpayer-funded processing fees for facilitating PPP loans, Hockridge and her husband received about $250 million in kickbacks.  Although they did file for and receive $300,00 in PPP loans for themselves, which included an application that falsely claimed Reis was a veteran and an African American.

Hockridge is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 10 and faces up to 20 years in prison. Her husband, Reis, is scheduled to stand trial in August 2025, on related charges.

Excellent job by the FBI in this case.

Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Ex-TV news anchor Stephanie Hockridge convicted in massive scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID relief funds” published by the New York Post on June 23, 2025.

Stephanie Hockridge, a former Phoenix news anchor-turned-fintech entrepreneur, has been convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a federal case involving hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID relief funds. A jury in the Northern District of Texas found Hockridge guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was acquitted on four additional counts of wire fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 10.

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