PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The husband of a former Phoenix news anchor plans to switch his plea for his involvement in the COVID-19 pandemic area- PPP loan fraud scam.
Federal court documents from Texas said Nathan Reis plans to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A judge signed off on the deal on Wednesday. This will avoid a trial, which was set to start this month.
He and Stephanie Hockridge, an ex-KNXV anchor, founded a Scottsdale-based tech company in April 2020 called BlueAcorn to help small businesses and people access federal Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Reis and others worked together to submit fake PPP loan applications to the federal government. The false documents included fabricated tax records and changed bank statements to make a business or person eligible for a loan they shouldn’t receive.
These loan applications were submitted to banks and other financial businesses headquartered in Phoenix, Redwood City, California, San Diego, San Francisco, and Bedford, Texas.
Reis also did this for his company, Juuice Inc., where he created fake tax documents claiming he paid employees, including himself and Hockridge. He got a PPP loan of around $69,870.
Investigators said he stopped his involvement in Blueacorn but remained in the scam through around May 2021.
Reis faces up to 20 years in prison, up to $250,000 in fines, up to three years of supervised release and must pay restitution.
The guilty plea will be officially entered in court on Monday in Fort Worth, Texas. It’s unclear when sentencing will be.
Hockridge was found guilty in June of one conspiracy charge to commit wire fraud, but a jury found her not guilty on four counts of wire fraud.
An Arizona’s Family Investigates report revealed in 2022 that a Congressional report found BlueAcorn’s partner lenders processed almost three times as many federal PPP loans in 2021 as J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America combined, but it was only one employee was directly involved in handling the applications.
Arizona’s Family Investigates’ Amy Cutler discovered no one at BlueAcorn had training on loan underwriting.
The committee also obtained internal messages from the company where Hockridge wrote “delete them” and “who [expletive] cares” when referring to those seeking smaller loans and “we’re not the first bank to decline borrowers who deserve to be funded.”
Reis and Hockridge were indicted and made their first court appearances in Texas in connection with the case in November 2024.
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