Emmy-Nominated Anchorwoman and "Journalist" Sent Email to Criminal Hubby Laughing About Defrauding the Goverment of $300,000 in PPP Loans

We are Real News, Mr. President.

A former Emmy-nominated TV news anchor convicted in a billion-dollar COVID fraud scheme sent a scandalous text to her partner in crime that joked about cheating taxpayers out of taxpayer money.

Stephanie Hockridge-Reis, who worked for a local station in Phoenix before becoming a fintech entrepreneur, sent the message to her husband, Nathan Reis, after applying for Payment Protection Program (PPP) loans during the height of the pandemic.

"This is us trying to apply for free money -- when we don't quite qualify. lol," she texted Reis, 47, according to a federal indictment obtained by The Arizona Republic.

The couple was accused of fraudulently obtaining over $300,000 in PPP loans for themselves, including one application that falsely claimed he was a veteran and an African American.

You'd think that would be enough to get the propaganda media to cover this. (This report is in Murdoch's NY Post, which doesn't count.)

Nope.

Reis took a plea deal on Monday and will be sentenced in November.

Hockridge-Reis, 42, was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in June by a jury in the Northern District of Texas. She was acquitted on four additional counts of wire fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 10.

She faces up to 20 years in prison.

The Post has sought comment from the duo.

The couple's Scottsdale-based fintech firm, Blueacorn, which the couple co-founded in 2020, processed over $12.5 billion in PPP loans -- with somewhere between $250 million and $300 million going to the company's ownership, including Hockridge-Reis.

Blueacorn received over $1 billion in taxpayer-funded processing fees for facilitating PPP loans but spent less than 1% ($8.6 million) on fraud prevention and only $13.7 million on eligibility verification, according to a congressional investigation.

In other words: They defrauded the government of a lot more than the $300,000 in PPP loans they did not qualify for.

posted by Ace at 04:00 PM

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