On November 21, former ABC15 news anchor and reporter Stephanie Hockridge was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for defrauding a COVID-19 relief fund scheme, Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), between April 2020 and May 2021.Hockride’s husband, Nathan Reis, is named as one of her co-conspirators. Together, they reportedly carried out the fraud scheme via their fintech company, Blueacorn.The couple was originally indicted in November 2024 and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. At the time, they were looking at a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.In June 2025, a grand jury found Stephanie guilty on a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Meanwhile, in August, Nathan pleaded guilty to the same charge as his wife. He is scheduled to be sentenced in December.Stephanie Hockridge, 42, who was sentenced at a courthouse in Fort Knox, Texas, will be held at the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas.Meanwhile, ABC15 reported that her lawyers will soon appeal against her sentencing.All about Stephanie Hockridge’s husbandNathan Reis, 47, is a businessman who co-founded a lender service provider called Blueacorn with Stephanie Hockridge in April 2020. The couple is originally from Phoenix, Arizona, USA, and later moved to Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.During the COVID-19 pandemic, Reis and Hockridge ran a scheme and swindled $63 million in the form of loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program, which was intended to help small business owners and their employees.According to the press release by the United States Department of Justice:“To get larger loans for certain PPP applicants, Hockridge and her co-conspirators fabricated documents, including payroll records, tax documentation and bank statements. Hockridge and her co-conspirators charged borrowers kickbacks based on a percentage of the funds received.”The couple is also accused of submitting false applications to the PPP for loans. Stephanie Hockridge and Nathan Reis allegedly took $300,000 each in PPP loans for their own company, despite not fulfilling the criteria, according to a 2024 report by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Reis falsely identified himself as a Black American and a veteran to secure the loans.Additionally, they also charged clients with unlawful fees based on the services and the funds received.“To obtain a greater volume of kickbacks from borrowers and a 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,” the DOJ added.Not only that, but Stephanie Hockridge and her husband were accused of hiring people to act as referral agents and teach clients how to forge loan applications.Stephanie Hockridge previously worked at the ABC-affiliate ABC15 in Phoenix, Arizona, between 2011 and 2018. Her former employer reported that her defense attorneys argued that the federal case against her was targeted, as she was among several hundred borrowers.However, according to a year-old DOJ report, the agency has penalized:“200 defendants in more than 130 criminal cases and has seized over $78 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds.”Meanwhile, according to Newsweek, over $100 billion was defrauded from the COVID-19 relief funds, including the PPP, out of an estimated total of $3.4 trillion.Originally, in 2022, a congressional panel released a report that held Blueacorn responsible for earning a profit of $300 million. However, the company owners claimed that they earned $1 billion in processing fees from clients, but $700 million was invested to continue running their business.In 2020, PPP was introduced by the U.S. Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.