A former Emmy-nominated TV news anchor convicted in a billion-dollar COVID fraud scheme sent a scandalous text to her partner in crime that joked about cheating taxpayers out of taxpayer money.
Stephanie Hockridge-Reis, who worked for a local station in Phoenix before becoming a fintech entrepreneur, sent the message to her husband, Nathan Reis, after applying for Payment Protection Program (PPP) loans during the height of the pandemic.
“This is us trying to apply for free money — when we don’t quite qualify. lol,” she texted Reis, 47, according to a federal indictment obtained by The Arizona Republic.
The couple was accused of fraudulently obtaining over $300,000 in PPP loans for themselves, including one application that falsely claimed he was a veteran and an African American.
Reis took a plea deal on Monday and will be sentenced in November.
Hockridge-Reis, 42, was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in June by a jury in the Northern District of Texas. She was acquitted on four additional counts of wire fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 10.
She faces up to 20 years in prison.
The Post has sought comment from the duo.
The couple’s Scottsdale-based fintech firm, Blueacorn, which the couple co-founded in 2020, processed over $12.5 billion in PPP loans — with somewhere between $250 million and $300 million going to the company’s ownership, including Hockridge-Reis.
Blueacorn received over $1 billion in taxpayer-funded processing fees for facilitating PPP loans but spent less than 1% ($8.6 million) on fraud prevention and only $13.7 million on eligibility verification, according to a congressional investigation.
The PPP was an $800 billion federal loan initiative launched in 2020 to help small businesses keep workers employed during the pandemic.
It was part of a broader effort — including grants, tax credits and emergency loans — aimed at stabilizing the US economy and preventing mass business closures and layoffs.
Investigators claimed that the couple used the proceeds to enrich themselves personally, however.
The former KNXV-TV anchor claimed that her actions were a “sincere effort to support small businesses” in navigating a chaotic government problem during an era of “unprecedented need.”
As part of the proceedings, Congress said it obtained a video created by Reis and Hockridge-Reis showing off large amounts of cash in a bar on Dec. 21, 2021. According to public records, Reis relocated to San Juan, Puerto Rico, which has no capital gains tax, following his work at Blueacorn.
Another video months earlier showed Hockridge and Reis on the balcony of a luxury beachfront apartment in San Juan, The Post previously reported.
A congressional report found that Blueacorn routinely failed to properly vet applicants and charged illegal “success fees” to borrowers — violating Small Business Administration rules.
The report also detailed how Blueacorn’s leadership instructed staff to prioritize speed over accuracy.
Hockridge-Reis was once a familiar face in Arizona households. She spent seven years as an anchor at KNXV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Phoenix, and had previously worked as a reporter for CBS News Radio in London.
She was nominated for an Emmy and named “Favorite Newscaster” by Arizona Foothills Magazine.
Her conviction marks one of the highest-profile PPP fraud cases to date involving a public figure.
Fraud related to COVID-19 relief programs was unprecedented in US history, with losses estimated in the hundreds of billions.
The PPP, Economic Injury Disaster Loans and unemployment insurance programs were especially vulnerable — with watchdogs reporting widespread misuse, insider abuse and systemic failures in fraud prevention.
