Barry Calhoun — profile dossier

Identity and role

Barry Calhoun became Chief Executive Officer of Blueacorn in March 2021. He was not a co-founder. He was the named recipient of the House Select Subcommittee's November 2021 oversight letter. Today he is Co-Managing Partner of BLSQ Management.

Biography / career arc

By his firm's account he has spent much of his career restructuring companies and arranging financing. Before Blueacorn he was a Director at Bayard Business Capital and Consulting (from 2017), overseeing credit and equity solutions for businesses and commercial-real-estate investors. Earlier he was a Managing Director at Larson Capital Management, an alternative-investment manager, where he ran the firm and its real-estate funds. Before that he held senior wealth-management roles at Bank of America and U.S. Bank, focused on liquidity events for business owners and athletes/entertainers.

He called Blueacorn "a fly-by-seat-of-the-pants sort of environment" in an interview posted to Medium, as quoted in the House Select Subcommittee's December 2022 staff report.

The company and its PPP/EIDL role

Blueacorn was a lender service provider, not a lender, that packaged PPP applications and routed them to partner CDFIs (Prestamos in Phoenix and Capital Plus Financial in Bedford, Texas) for a share of the SBA's processing fees. In 2021 it forwarded 739,282 applications it told the Subcommittee it had approved and sent to lenders for funding. Blueacorn took in roughly $1.08 billion in fees; the House report found Blueacorn and Womply together touched nearly one in three PPP loans funded that year.

Calhoun was CEO during the 2021 volume. The congressional report's criticisms of reviewer training and review speed describe the 2021 operation, much of it executed through the contractor Elev8 Advisors and supervised day-to-day by COO Matt Yahes. Calhoun told The New York Times that "tiny businesses, self-employed individuals, and minority communities are left out in the cold, over and over and over," and that "addressing that is a core mission for us."

The founders' criminal conspiracy (the document fabrication and the kickback-driven "VIPPP" program) ran from April 2020 through May 2021. Reis's own sworn factual resume says he stepped back from active operations "around March 2021," which is when Calhoun arrived.

Their own relief

No PPP or EIDL loan to Calhoun personally is established in the public record.

Legal status / controversies

Calhoun has not been charged with any crime. None of the Northern District of Texas criminal cases — against Nathan Reis, Stephanie Hockridge, Flores, Cota, or Arriaga — name him.

He was a named defendant in civil litigation. Womply (OTO Analytics) sued Capital Plus Financial, Crossroads Systems, Eric Donnelly, "BA Fin Orion, LLC d/b/a Blueacorn, and Barry Calhoun" in the Northern District of Texas (No. 3:21-cv-02636-B) over roughly $76.7 million in fees Womply said it was owed. As the May 11, 2022 memorandum opinion records, the court "previously dismissed all claims against the other defendants in this case, BA Fin Orion LLC d/b/a Blueacorn and Barry Calhoun, for lack of personal jurisdiction". The dismissal was jurisdictional, not a ruling on the merits.

The November 22, 2021 letter from Select Subcommittee Chairman James Clyburn, addressed to "Mr. Barry Calhoun, Chief Executive Officer," opened the congressional inquiry into Blueacorn's PPP practices. The report made referrals; it made no finding as to Calhoun.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Calhoun is Co-Managing Partner of BLSQ Management, a firm that works with mid-sized financial institutions, non-bank lenders, and other small-business lenders. He has not appeared as a defendant in any of the Blueacorn criminal cases or in the asset-recovery actions pursuing the convicted founders.

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents

Sources

BLSQ Management, leadership page (Calhoun bio, current role, prior roles at Bayard, Larson Capital, BofA/US Bank): BLSQ Management, leadership page Calhoun bio, current role, prior roles at Bayard, Larson Capital, BofA/US Bank (original: blsqmanagement.com)
U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Chairman Clyburn letter to Barry Calhoun, CEO, Blue Acorn PPP, LLC (Nov. 22, 2021): 2021 11 22 Clyburn To Blue Acorn PPP Llc Re PPP Loans Pdf 2d0acfd4b1494246 (original: coronavirus-democrats-oversight.house.gov · stored capture)
U.S. House Select Subcommittee, "We Are Not the Fraud Police: How Fintechs Facilitated Fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program" (Dec. 1, 2022) — Calhoun "fly-by-seat-of-the-pants" quote; 2021 operation: We Are Not the Fraud Police: How Fintechs Facilitated Fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program (original: coronavirus-democrats-oversight.house.gov · stored capture)
OTO Analytics, Inc. d/b/a Womply v. Capital Plus Financial, LLC, et al., No. 3:21-cv-02636-B (N.D. Tex.), memorandum opinion and order (May 11, 2022) — claims against Blueacorn and Calhoun dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction (Doc. 82).
The New York Times, "Two Start-Ups Stepped In When Big Lenders Wouldn't for P.P.P. Loans" (Aug. 2021) — Calhoun quotes (republished overview): The New York Times, "Two Start-Ups Stepped In When Big Lenders Wouldn't for P.P.P. Loans" Aug. 2021 — Calhoun quotes... (original: mheducation.com)
ProPublica, "Fintechs Made 'Massive Profits' on PPP Loans and Sometimes Engaged in Fraud, House Committee Report Finds": ProPublica, "Fintechs Made 'Massive Profits' on PPP Loans and Sometimes Engaged in Fraud, House Committee Report Finds" (original: propublica.org · stored capture)
LinkedIn, Barry Calhoun profile (self-reported): LinkedIn, Barry Calhoun profile (self-reported) (original: linkedin.com)