Blueacorn’s $1.09 billion in PPP fees: 61% went to a marketing firm run by members of its leadership
Capital Plus Financial and Prestamos CDFI, the two CDFI lenders Blueacorn worked through, paid it about $1.09 billion in 2021 PPP fees; the chart traces where that money went and what the SBA and the Federal Reserve put in upstream. Blueacorn’s outflows come from its own cash-flow statement as cited by a House subcommittee report, and Womply’s figures are allegations in its lawsuit against Capital Plus. Compiled June 2026; figures rechecked September 2026.
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Figure-by-figure fact check
| Component | Figure | Confidence | Source & note |
|---|---|---|---|
| SBA lender fee (small loans) | ≤$50k: lesser of 50% or $2,500 | High | Economic Aid Act / SBA Procedural Notice 5000-20091 (statutory) |
| Capital Plus gross PPP fees | ≈$1.1B | High — corroborated | Crossroads Q2 FY2021 earnings release (expected total of deferred gross origination fees); rebuilt 472,036 × $2,500 = $1.18B ceiling |
| Capital Plus net income FY20→FY21 | $3,646,531 → $195,398,349 | High | Crossroads Annual Disclosures (primary) |
| Crossroads special dividend | $40/sh = $238,879,760 | High — exact | Crossroads FY2021 annual disclosure; $40 × 5,971,994 sh; the Womply complaint quotes the July 8, 2021 shareholder letter |
| Combined SBA fee-pool ceiling | ≤$2.42B | High — computed | (472,036 + 494,415) × $2,500 = $2,416,127,500; loans under $5,000 earned less, so the fees paid were lower; downstream fits inside |
| Prestamos loans / implied fees | 925 (2020) → 494,415 (2021); ≈$7.68B; fees ≈$1.2B | Medium | SBA PPP report through 5/31/2021 (494,415 loans, $7,676,108,813); the 2020 count is from SBA loan-level data, a different basis; fee computed (494,415 × $2,500 ceiling). Nonprofit — no company filing |
| Fed PPPLF draw (Capital Plus) | ≈$6.4B | Medium | Crossroads FY2021 annual disclosure; Fed PPPLF transaction disclosures list $6.46B in advances to Capital Plus and confirm the mechanism (Harvest, a Womply partner, $12.7B) |
| Blueacorn total fees | $1.086B = $700M Prestamos + $386M Capital Plus | Medium | House report, lender-by-lender (Blueacorn data); its summary says “over $700 million” and “over $385 million” |
| → Paynerd (marketing) | ≈$666M (61%) | Medium | Blueacorn Simplified Cash Flow Statement (BA-SSCC-0000121-22), obtained by the House Select Subcommittee. Paynerd a/k/a Paynerdier, run by Strategic Advisor Matt Mandell & CMO Taylor Hendricksen; paid per funded loan. Insider-controlled. Not Elev8. |
| → owners | ≈$258M (24%); by the 50/50 stakes, ~$129M to Reis/Hockridge and ~$129M to Spirakus (estimate) | Medium | Blueacorn cash-flow statement; ownership 50% Spirakus / 50% Reis-Hockridge per operating agreement; the report says the stake “could have entitled” Spirakus to $129M; Blueacorn declined to give per-owner figures; the report’s summary rounds owners to “nearly $300 million” |
| → Elev8 Advisors (verification) | ≤$13.7M eligibility spend | Medium — inferred payee | The Spencers’ consultancy; ran 30+ contract reviewers ("1 employee" per its own forgiveness application). Report itemizes the $13.7M eligibility-verification spend (shared with Business Warrior), not an explicit Elev8 total. Spencers also took ≥$200k in PPP loans |
| → fraud-prevention software | $8,682,207 (0.80%) | Medium | Blueacorn cash-flow statement; off-the-shelf screening software; 0.80% of $1.086B (the report prints 0.79%) |
| → residual (opex/tax/support) | ≈$140M | Computed | $1.086B − ($666M+$258M+$13.7M+$8.68M = $946M) = $140M. Outflows do not exceed income |
| Capital Plus loans / avg / volume | 472,036 · $16,062 · ≈$7.58B | Medium | SBA PPP report through 5/31/2021 ($7,582,023,560) and Crossroads Q2 FY2021 release; #1 lender by 2021 loan count through 4/11/2021 in SBA loan-level data |
| Blueacorn loans | 1.7M reviewed / 739,282 self-reported applications approved and sent to lenders for funding (2021) | Medium | House Select Subcommittee report (Blueacorn data) — short of the reconciled 840,139 PPP loans / $13.06B the SBA loan-level data show for the two lenders, a total that includes the 86,521 Capital Plus loans the Womply complaint attributes to Womply |
| Womply referred loans / value / CPF fees | 86,521 · >$950M · ≈$187M | Medium (alleged) | Womply first amended complaint ¶¶ 5, 72, recited in the court’s May 11, 2022 opinion ($186,882,948 in fees, ≈$2,160 per loan) |
| Womply amount owed | >$76M ($9M referral + $67M tech) | Medium (alleged) | Womply first amended complaint ¶ 6 (about $9M and about $67M); partly survived the motion to dismiss (May 11, 2022: five counts dismissed without prejudice). Comparator Benworth arbitration awarded Womply ≈$117.9M, rejected SBA-cap defense |
| Criminal scheme | >530 fraudulent loans / >$65M in losses; kickbacks were a percentage of each loan | High — adjudicated | DOJ release on Reis’s sentencing (Dec. 18, 2025); Reis Factual Resume (plea) |
Reconciliation. Blueacorn took in $1.086B ($700M Prestamos + $386M Capital Plus). Outflows — Paynerd $666M (61%), owners $258M (24%), Elev8/eligibility ≤$13.7M, fraud software $8.68M (0.80%) — total ~$946M (≈87%), leaving a computed ~$140M residual. The destination column sums to $1.086B.
Two distinct insider entities. Paynerd (Matt Mandell, Strategic Advisor; Taylor Hendricksen, CMO) received the $666M marketing money. Elev8 Advisors (Adam & Kristen Spencer) was the separate, far-smaller eligibility-verification consultancy (~$13.7M line, shared with Business Warrior). Of the people who took the most money — Paynerd’s principals and 50% Blueacorn owner Noah Spirakus (~$129M by the House report’s estimate) — none was charged. Only Reis, Hockridge and Flores were, for the kickback and fraudulent-loan scheme (more than 530 loans, more than $65M in losses). Seven further federal prosecutions of borrowers and facilitators who used the same Blueacorn/Capital Plus/Prestamos channel proceed separately from those three founders’ conspiracy convictions, and do not establish that every loan the platform processed was fraudulent. Published profiles are in the profile index.
Sources
- U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, “We Are Not the Fraud Police”: How Fintechs Facilitated Fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program (Dec. 1, 2022): Blueacorn’s fees, the cash-flow statement figures it cites (BA-SSCC-0000121-22), the 50/50 ownership split, Elev8 Advisors and Business Warrior.
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Report: Approvals Through 05/31/2021: Capital Plus and Prestamos loan counts, dollars and averages.
- Crossroads Systems (OTC disclosures and earnings releases): FY2021 annual disclosure (net income, the $238,879,760 dividend, 5,971,994 shares, the $6.4B PPPLF draw); FY2020 annual disclosure; Q2 FY2021 earnings release (472,036 loans, $1.1B expected fees).
- Oto Analytics (Womply) v. Capital Plus Financial, N.D. Tex. No. 3:21-cv-02636: first amended complaint (Dec. 23, 2021); memorandum opinion and order (May 11, 2022); case file.
- United States v. Reis and Hockridge, N.D. Tex. No. 4:24-cr-287: Reis factual resume (Aug. 6, 2025); U.S. Department of Justice releases on Reis’s sentencing (Dec. 18, 2025) and Hockridge’s sentencing (Nov. 21, 2025); case file.
- Prosecutions of borrowers and facilitators through the same lenders: United States v. Sanders et al. (W.D. Mo. 4:24-CR-29-BP); United States v. Martin (S.D./E.D. Tex. 4:24-mj-257 / 1:24-CR-59); United States v. Arriaga (N.D. Tex. 4:24-CR-006-Y); United States v. Cota (N.D. Tex. 4:24-CR-005-Y); United States v. Diane et al. (S.D. Ohio 2:23-CR-37); United States v. Eley (E.D. La. 2:23-CR-85); United States v. Morgan (E.D. La. 2:23-CR-47).
- SBA lender fee: SBA interim final rule implementing the Economic Aid Act (Jan. 14, 2021); SBA Procedural Notice 5000-20091 (Feb. 8, 2021).
- Federal Reserve, Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility and its transaction-level disclosures; SBA PPP loan-level data (Sept. 30, 2024 release).
- Oto Analytics (Womply) v. Benworth Capital Partners: petition to confirm the arbitration award (N.D. Cal., July 1, 2024).
In the archive: Blueacorn · Capital Plus / Crossroads · Prestamos CDFI (CPLC) · Womply · Nathan Reis · Stephanie Hockridge · Noah Spirakus · James Flores · Barry Calhoun · Matt Mandell · Taylor Hendricksen · Adam Spencer · Kristen Spencer · Eric Donnelly · David Adame · Toby Scammell · Cory Capoccia — U.S. v. Reis / Hockridge · Crossroads OTC filings · OTO v. Capital Plus · All charts