Stephanie Hockridge, a former television anchor, has been sentenced to a decade behind bars for her involvement in a multi-million-dollar COVID-19 fraud scheme.
The 42-year-old will serve her sentence at the same minimum-security facility in Texas, where Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking, is also incarcerated, according to a report by the New York Post.
Hockridge is scheduled to report to the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, on December 30.
In addition to her prison term, she has been ordered to repay $64 million for the fraudulent pandemic loans she secured.
The former KNXV-TV anchor was initially facing a potential 20-year prison sentence after being convicted by a jury on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Prosecutors revealed she masterminded an extensive scheme to misuse the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds at the peak of the pandemic, which she allegedly utilized to acquire opulent beachfront properties.
Damning pictures which emerged also showed her posing in a bathtub flashing wadges of cash
The sentence marks a dramatic fall from grace for the Emmy-nominated journalist who once graced magazine covers as ‘Arizona’s Favorite Newscaster.’
Stephanie Hockridge was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She had pleaded not guilty but could now be jailed for decades
She and her husband Nathan Reis who was also convicted ran a vast scheme to exploit the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) during the height of Covid
But behind the studio lights and on-air smiles, federal prosecutors said Hockridge was running a Covid cash-grab empire alongside her husband, fintech founder Nathan Reis, 46.
Reis was convicted of the same charge earlier this year and is due to be sentenced in November.
The US government’s case centered on Blueacorn, the fintech firm Hockridge co-founded with Reis in April 2020 just weeks after leaving her anchor job at ABC15.
The company claimed to help small businesses navigate the PPP loan process, a lifeline created by Congress to keep workers employed during the Covid crisis.
In reality, investigators say Blueacorn became a fraud factory.
According to a congressional subcommittee, the company processed over $12.5 billion in loans and pocketed up to $300 million for its ownership group, including Hockridge, while spending virtually nothing on fraud prevention.
While many small businesses struggled to survive during the pandemic, Hockridge and her husband were living large, filming videos with bricks of cash, flaunting Rolex watches, and vacationing on the balconies of tropical locales.
Who the f*** cares,’ Hockridge allegedly said in one message about improperly rejected applicants. ‘We’re not the first bank to decline borrowers who deserve to be funded… They can go elsewhere.’
Hockridge and fintech founder Nathan Reis, obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in PPP loans
Another text cited by prosecutors reportedly described her as ‘the MVP’ of the operation.
According to court filings, Hockridge and her husband submitted fraudulent PPP applications for themselves, including one claiming Reis was both African American and a military veteran – both lies.
The couple received at least $300,000 in personal PPP funds.
They also charged borrowers illegal ‘success fees,’ violating SBA rules, and even struck kickback deals with banks, collecting percentages of loans that were funded, prosecutors alleged.
Blueacorn’s practices were so brazen that Congress launched a formal investigation, revealing that while the company collected over $1 billion in taxpayer-funded processing fees, it spent only $8.6 million on fraud prevention – less than 1 percent of its intake.
One congressional report summarized the company’s internal directive succinctly: Speed over accuracy.
Some employees, with zero financial training, were reportedly processing hundreds of loans in under 30 seconds each.
‘This was not about helping small businesses,’ a federal official close to the investigation said. ‘It was about siphoning off a national crisis for personal gain.’
The glamorous former television news anchor that was known to millions of viewers in Phoenix
Hockridge could be seen wearing an ankle monitor as she left court during her trial
Hockridge transformation from trusted journalist to convicted felon has gripped Arizona’s media community.
She spent seven years as a respected anchor for KNXV-TV, and previously worked for CBS News Radio in London.
During the trial, federal attorneys introduced a superseding indictment alleging that Hockridge and her husband fabricated payroll records, tax documents, and bank statements.
In one application, the couple claimed to own an Amazon business generating six figures.
Another loan was issued to a nonexistent company they claimed had multiple employees.
The couple allegedly rerouted money through a chain of bank accounts, using interstate wires to disguise their tracks.
‘Nathan Reis and Stephanie Hockridge… knowingly devised and intended to devise the scheme to defraud,’ the indictment states.
Hockridge is due to enter Federal Camp Bryan, which also houses notorious sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell
‘To obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses.’
At the heart of the prosecution’s case was an alleged attitude of impunity.
Prosecutors said Hockridge once described the PPP program as ‘$100 billion of free money’.
