Matt Yahes — profile dossier

Identity and role

Matt Yahes was Blueacorn's Chief Operating Officer. The House Select Subcommittee identifies him by that title and as one of the two Blueacorn employees primarily responsible for directing the company's eligibility-verification team. The record does not show him as a co-founder or an owner.

Biography / career arc

Yahes's biography outside Blueacorn is not publicly documented beyond the House report.

The company and its PPP/EIDL role

Blueacorn was a lender service provider, not a lender, that packaged PPP applications and forwarded approved ones 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 collected roughly $1.08 billion in fees.

The eligibility-verification work was largely executed by the contractor Elev8 Advisors, run by Adam and Kristen Spencer, whose reviewers, per messages quoted in the report, were told "the faster the better" and that reviews "should take you less than 30 seconds." In a Slack message obtained by investigators, Kristen Spencer wrote that Blueacorn's COO, Yahes, instructed her to "do nothing outside of making sure [eligibility reviewers] get through 5000 files a day". Blueacorn's IT consultant replied, "oy vey, that's a lot haha." Per the report, he also appears in Blueacorn's vendor correspondence: emails between Business Warrior (a supplemental verification vendor), Yahes as COO, and co-founder Noah Spirakus.

Their own relief

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

Legal status / controversies

Yahes has not been charged with any crime. None of the Northern District of Texas criminal cases (against founders Reis, Hockridge, and Flores, or Qualytics associates Cota and Arriaga) name him. There is no public indictment, plea, settlement, or civil judgment against him as of mid-2026.

The report's statements about review speed are oversight findings and quoted internal messages, not findings of a court.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Not publicly documented. Yahes is not a party to the Blueacorn prosecutions, the related civil litigation, or the asset-recovery actions.

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

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) — Yahes named as COO; "one of two Blueacorn employees primarily responsible for directing their eligibility verification team"; the "5000 files a day" Slack message; Business Warrior/Yahes/Spirakus emails: We Are Not the Fraud Police: How Fintechs Facilitated Fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program (original: coronavirus-democrats-oversight.house.gov · stored capture)
ProPublica, "Fintechs Made 'Massive Profits' on PPP Loans and Sometimes Engaged in Fraud, House Committee Report Finds" (overview of Blueacorn's review operation): ProPublica, "Fintechs Made 'Massive Profits' on PPP Loans and Sometimes Engaged in Fraud, House Committee Report Finds" (original: propublica.org · stored capture)
U.S. v. Reis & Hockridge, No. 4:24-CR-00287-O (N.D. Tex.) and related Blueacorn cases — Yahes not named as a defendant (docket via DocketAlarm/PACER): U.S. v. Reis & Hockridge, No. 4:24-CR-00287-O N.D. Tex. and related Blueacorn cases — Yahes not named as a defendant... (original: docketalarm.com)