Pandemic Darlings The pandemic economy, in original documents
Home Profiles Stephanie Hockridge (Reis)

Profiles · PrincipalsControversial

ProfilePerson

Stephanie Hockridge (Reis)

Executive

PPP
Type
Person
Role
Executive
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

Co-founder of Blueacorn and former Phoenix television news anchor. A jury convicted her on June 20, 2025 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and acquitted her on four wire-fraud counts (N.D. Tex. 4:24-CR-287-O); sentenced November 21, 2025 to 120 months and $63,952,063.64 in restitution. Appeal pending.

Individuals whose conduct was challenged or called into question during or after the pandemic. See sources: Indictment, Nov. 14, 2024 DOJ sentencing release, Nov. 21, 2025

In the archive

Identity and role

Stephanie Hockridge (who also goes by her married name, Stephanie Reis) co-founded Blueacorn in April 2020 with her husband, Nathan Reis, and technology entrepreneur Noah Spirakus. In the company's own materials she carried the title "Customer Service Lead." Before Blueacorn she spent most of a decade on Phoenix television as a news anchor. At her November 2025 sentencing she was 42 and living in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, having previously lived in Arizona.

Biography / career arc

An Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist, Hockridge worked in Columbia, Missouri; Charlottesville, Virginia; and Kansas City, Missouri, before joining ABC15 (KNXV-TV) in Phoenix, where she anchored from 2011 to 2018.

She and Reis founded Blueacorn in April 2020, the same month the Paycheck Protection Program launched. In a promotional appearance cited by the House Select Subcommittee, Hockridge described the PPP as "$100 billion dollars of free money" and pointed applicants to Blueacorn's site to "find out in less than 30 seconds" whether they qualified, telling potential borrowers that "if you end up making it to the [Blueacorn] log-in page, you qualify." She described the company's early operation as "building the parachute after we jumped out of the plane."

The company and its PPP/EIDL role

Blueacorn was a lender service provider, not a lender. It collected and screened 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 processing fees. Blueacorn told the Subcommittee it approved and sent 739,282 loans to lenders for funding in 2021. Blueacorn took in roughly $1.08 billion in fees. The company itself was never criminally charged; the SBA suspended it in December 2022.

The operating agreement obtained by the Select Subcommittee put Spirakus at 50 percent and the Reis-Hockridge couple at the other 50 percent, a stake the report estimated could have entitled the couple to roughly $129 million.

Their own relief

According to evidence at trial, Hockridge and her co-conspirators fabricated payroll records, tax documentation, and bank statements to obtain bigger PPP loans, and charged borrowers kickbacks based on a percentage of the funds. The vehicle was a premium service the founders called "VIPPP" ("Very Important PPP"): Hockridge recruited co-conspirators to act as VIPPP referral agents and coach borrowers on submitting false applications. In total, DOJ said, Hockridge and her co-conspirators processed over $63 million in fraudulent PPP loans. Several of the earliest fraudulent loans in the related filings ran through entities tied to the couple, including Juuice and Body Politix.

Hockridge was charged in the Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth Division), case 4:24-CR-287-O, before Chief District Judge Reed O'Connor, in the same case as Reis. The superseding indictment (May 8, 2025) charged one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1349) and four counts of wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343).

Hockridge filed motions to dismiss through 2025 and went to trial. On June 20, 2025 the jury convicted her on Count One, the conspiracy charge, and acquitted her on all four substantive wire-fraud counts (Counts 2–5).

On November 21, 2025, Judge O'Connor sentenced her to 120 months (10 years) in prison plus two years of supervised release, a $100 special assessment, and restitution of $63,952,063.64 to the SBA. The court imposed no fine, finding she lacked the means to pay one. The judgment (ECF 362) reflects those figures; Counts 1 through 5 of the original indictment were dismissed on the government's motion. The restitution is joint and several with Reis and co-conspirator James Flores. Hockridge filed a notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit on December 5, 2025.

Hockridge transferred roughly $29 million into Nevada trusts (the Marietta Legacy Trust and Marietta Family Trust) in 2022. In April 2026 the court found the trusts subject to garnishment, and DOJ said in May 2026 it expected to recover nearly $30 million across the couple's trusts.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

The court ordered her to surrender by December 30, 2025, with a recommendation for FPC Bryan, Texas; a December 26, 2025 order extended the date to January 30, 2026. The recommendation is the court's and does not bind the Bureau of Prisons. A later order, reported by ABC15 by July 2026, moved the date to December 1, 2026, while her lawyer sought her release pending appeal (ABC15, "Hockridge prison sentence delayed again until December").

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources

Back to top