{"id":49104,"date":"2025-11-23T07:56:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T07:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/49104\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T07:56:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T07:56:15","slug":"disgraced-ex-news-anchor-stephanie-hockridge-sentenced-in-massive-covid-fraud-scheme-will-be-jailed-with-ghislaine-maxwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/49104\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgraced ex-news anchor Stephanie Hockridge sentenced in massive COVID fraud scheme — will be jailed with Ghislaine Maxwell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disgraced ex-TV anchor Stephanie Hockridge will spend the next ten years behind bars for her role in a multi-million-dollar COVID fraud scheme<\/a> \u2013 serving her time in the same cushy lockup as notorious sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.<\/p>\n

The 42-year-old, a former Phoenix TV anchor turned entrepreneur, was sentenced in Texas federal court Friday and ordered to cough up nearly $64 million in restitution for the bogus Paycheck Protection Program loans she helped secure during the height of the pandemic, the Justice Department announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hockridge, found guilty in June <\/a>of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, will report to prison on Dec. 30.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Hockridge, 42, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Texas federal court Friday. Facebook \/ Stephanie Hockridge<\/p>\n

She will be locked up at Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas \u2014 the same minimum-security facility that houses Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s madam<\/a>, disgraced Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes<\/a>, and \u201cReal Housewives of Salt Lake City\u201d scammer Jen Shah<\/a>, AZ Family reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hockridge and her husband, Nathan Reis, founded a lending-services company called Blueacorn in 2020, which they claimed was designed to help small businesses secure federal Paycheck Protection Program loans at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

But prosecutors said couple\u2019s Scottsdale-based firm charged borrowers<\/a> kickbacks based on percentage of the funds received \u2014 and submitted applications to the US Small Business Administration, which ran the PPP program, they knew where loaded with fraudulent information. <\/p>\n

In one application, Reis reportedly falsely claimed<\/a> he was a veteran and an African American. <\/p>\n

Hockridge and her husband, Nathan Reis, fraudulently obtained over $300,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans for themselves. ABC15 Arizona<\/p>\n

In total, they processed more than $63 million in bogus PPP loans, according to the DOJ. <\/p>\n

The PPP was an $800 billion federal loan initiative launched in 2020 to help small businesses keep workers employed during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Investigators alleged that the couple used the proceeds to enrich themselves<\/a> personally.<\/p>\n

Her conviction marks one of the highest-profile PPP fraud cases to date involving a public figure. Facebook \/ Stephanie Hockridge<\/p>\n

The former KNXV-TV anchor claimed that her actions were a \u201csincere effort to support small businesses\u201d in navigating a chaotic government problem during an era of \u201cunprecedented need.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a congressional report found that Blueacorn routinely failed to properly vet applicants and charged illegal \u201csuccess fees\u201d to borrowers \u2014 violating Small Business Administration rules.<\/p>\n

The report also detailed how Blueacorn\u2019s leadership instructed staff to prioritize speed over accuracy.<\/p>\n

She will be locked up at the same minimum-security facility that houses Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s madam and notorious sex trafficker Ghisliane Maxwell. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Reis took a plea deal in August and will be sentenced in December.<\/p>\n

Hockridge spent seven years as an anchor at KNXV-TV<\/a>, the ABC affiliate in Phoenix, and had previously worked as a reporter for CBS News Radio in London.<\/p>\n

She was nominated for an Emmy and named \u201cFavorite Newscaster\u201d by Arizona Foothills Magazine.<\/a><\/p>\n

Her conviction marks one of the highest-profile PPP fraud cases to date involving a public figure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disgraced ex-TV anchor Stephanie Hockridge will spend the next ten years behind bars for her role in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1458,8676,396,1208,9,11,10,16824,27664,24646,7577],"class_list":{"0":"post-49104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-coronavirus","10":"tag-fraud","11":"tag-media","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-news-anchors","16":"tag-paycheck-protection-program","17":"tag-phoenix","18":"tag-wire-fraud"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}