Stephanie Hockridge, the disgraced former television anchor, has been sentenced to ten years in prison for her involvement in a multi-million-dollar COVID fraud scheme. She will serve her sentence in the same comfortable facility as infamous sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, NY POST reported.
The 42-year-old, who transitioned from a former anchor of Phoenix news station ABC15 to an entrepreneur, received her sentence in a Texas federal court on Friday. She has also been ordered to pay nearly $64 million in restitution for the fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loans she assisted in obtaining during the peak of the pandemic, as announced by the Justice Department.
Hockridge, who was convicted in June of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, is scheduled to report to prison on December 30.
Hockridge was additionally mandated to pay almost $64 million in restitution, together with her co-defendants, and is required to undergo supervised release for a duration of two years.
As stated by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Hockridge was found guilty in June 2025 of a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, although she was found not guilty of four counts of wire fraud.
Where will Stephanie Hockridge be prisoned?
{{/usCountry}}Where will Stephanie Hockridge be prisoned?
{{/usCountry}}According to AZ Family, she will be imprisoned at Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, which is the same minimum-security facility that is home to disgraced Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, Jeffrey Epstein's aide, and “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” con artist Jen Shah.
Stephanie Hockridge sentenced in COVID fraud scheme
In 2020, Hockridge and her spouse, Nathan Reis, established Blueacorn, a financial services firm they said was created to assist small companies in obtaining federal Paycheck Protection Program loans during the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic.
However, prosecutors stated that the couple's firm, based in Scottsdale, charged borrowers kickbacks calculated as a percentage of the funds received — and submitted applications to the US Small Business Administration, which administered the PPP program, knowing they were filled with fraudulent information.
In one application, Reis allegedly misrepresented himself as both a veteran and an African American.
In total, they processed over $63 million in fraudulent PPP loans, as reported by the DOJ.
The PPP was an $800 billion federal loan program initiated in 2020 to assist small businesses in retaining employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Investigators said that the couple utilized the funds to personally enrich themselves.
However, Hockridge claimed that her actions constituted a genuine attempt to "support small businesses" in managing a tumultuous governmental issue during a time of "unprecedented need."
Reis took a plea agreement in August and is scheduled for sentencing in December.