patrick.net

A glamorous ex-news anchor convicted in a billion-dollar Covid cash scheme sent an outrageous text to her husband joking about cheating taxpayers out of government funds.

Stephanie Hockridge-Reis's appalling message to her husband Nathan Reis emerged as Reis took a plea deal over his part in the Covid-19 funding scam.

The couple were accused of submitting false applications 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 case centered on Blueacorn, the fintech firm the couple co-founded in April 2020, just weeks after Hockridge-Reis left her anchor job.

Blueacorn claimed to help small businesses navigate the PPP loan process, a lifeline created by Congress to keep workers employed during the Covid crisis.

In reality, investigators say the company became a fraud factory.

According to a congressional subcommittee, Blueacorn processed over $12.5 billion in loans and pocketed up to $300 million for its ownership group, while spending virtually nothing on fraud prevention.

While many small businesses struggled to survive during the pandemic, the Reis family were living large, filming videos with bricks of cash, flaunting Rolex watches, and vacationing on the balconies of tropical locales.

The court was shown photos of her holding stacks of $100 bills in a bathtub and video captured at a luxury beachfront apartment in Puerto Rico, where the couple had relocated to avoid US capital gains tax.