A former Arizona television news anchor has been sentenced to a decade in federal prison for her role in a pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan fraud conspiracy.
On Friday, Nov. 21, Stephanie Hockridge — previously employed by Phoenix ABC15 — was sentenced by a federal judge in Texas to 120 months behind bars, according to local reports. She is expected to begin serving her sentence shortly after Christmas.
The court also ordered Hockridge and her co-defendants to pay nearly $64 million in restitution and placed her on two years of supervised release following her prison term.
Federal prosecutors said Hockridge was convicted in June 2025 of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, though a jury cleared her of four additional wire fraud counts.
Investigators traced the scheme to Blueacorn, a lender service company Hockridge and her husband, Nathan Reis, launched in 2020. The pair promoted the business as a way to help small companies access PPP funding. Authorities, however, alleged that Hockridge and others collected illegal kickbacks from borrowers, taking a percentage of the loan amounts.
According to the Department of Justice, the couple and their associates also produced falsified payroll records, tax filings, and bank statements to inflate loan applications submitted to the U.S. Small Business Administration, which oversaw the PPP.
At trial, prosecutors argued that Hockridge and Reis not only filed fraudulent applications themselves but also taught others how to do the same. In one instance, they secured a loan for a business that had no employees.
The DOJ said Hockridge helped run a concierge-style service called “VIPPP,” which paired applicants with referral agents who guided them through the process — including how to submit false information.
Records reviewed by AZ Family indicated that Blueacorn generated more than $1 billion in fees for processing PPP loans. Partner lenders working with the company reportedly handled nearly three times as many PPP loans in 2021 as J.P. Morgan, Chase, and Bank of America combined. The report also stated that the couple relocated to Puerto Rico after many of the loans tied to their operation were forgiven.
“This defendant exploited a national emergency to personally profit from a taxpayer-funded program intended to support vulnerable individuals and small businesses,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, after the conviction in June. “This conviction demonstrates the Department’s commitment to holding individuals accountable for defrauding the government and wasting taxpayer money.”
Hockridge’s sentencing had been set for Oct. 10 but was postponed to Nov. 21. She faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
She is expected to be housed at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas — a minimum-security facility that has held high-profile inmates including Ghislaine Maxwell, Elizabeth Holmes, and Jen Shah — and was ordered to report by Dec. 30.
Reis accepted a plea deal and is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
