A former TV news anchor and her husband have been indicted by the US Justice Department for allegedly scheming to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 relief money – a crime that could land them both behind bars for decades if convicted.
Stephanie Hockridge-Reis, 41, and Nathan Reis, 45, are alleged to have submitted false and fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from the federal government for themselves and their businesses even though they were not eligible.
Hockridge-Reis, a former news anchor for ABC15-TV in Phoenix, and her husband co-founded Blueacorn, a lender service provider that was purportedly founded to help small businesses and individuals obtain COVID-19 relief funds.
According to federal prosecutors, Hockridge-Reis and Reis fabricated documents such as payroll records, tax documentation and bank statements in order to obtain the loans.
The Justice Department alleged that the couple charged clients illegal fees for their services based on a percentage of the funds received.
The two are also alleged to have recruited people to work as referral agents who then coached borrowers on how to submit false PPP loan applications.
“In order to obtain a greater volume of kickbacks from borrowers and percentage of lender fees from the [Small Business Administration], Reis, Hockridge, and their co-conspirators submitted PPP loan applications that they knew contained materially false information,” according to the Justice Department.
The DOJ’s complaint doesn’t cite a total dollar figure for the fraud allegedly perpetrated by the couple.
In 2022, a Congressional panel issued a report which found that Blueacorn took in nearly $300 million in profits. The company told lawmakers that it collected more than $1 billion in fees for processing PPP applications but also had around $700 million in expenses.
The report alleged that Blueacorn did not prioritize small businesses and instead sought to obtain loans for the largest clients in order to earn higher commissions.
Hockridge-Reis and Reis are also alleged to have personally collected $300,000 in PPP loans that were in part facilitated by their own company, according to a report by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.
Individuals who reviewed loan applications for Blueacorn told congressional investigators that they were to place a greater emphasis on speed rather than in vetting whether the applications were legitimate, according to the Arizona Republic.
“I mean … I don’t believe in prioritizing the biggest loans over the smallest … but, there should be some understanding that as we get started…closing these monster loans will get everyone paid,” Hockridge-Reis said in one Slack message obtained by the committee.
In another Slack message obtained by congressional investigators, Hockridge-Reis wrote: “Delete them (small loans). Who f—— cares. We’re not the first bank to decline borrowers who deserve to be funded.”
Her husband is alleged to have filled out a loan application in which he “falsely claimed to be an African American and a veteran,” according to the panel report.
Contact information for the couple’s lawyer was not immediately available.