Did Blueacorn Fraudster Nate Reis Begin his Prison Sentence with Diesel Therapy?

February 6, 2026

Bob Coleman
Founder & Publisher

Fraud Friday: Did Blueacorn Fraudster Nate Reis Begin his Prison Sentence with Diesel Therapy?

Blueacorn co-founder Nathan Reis’s 10-year sentence for PPP loan fraud was scheduled to begin on January 20th. The judge recommended he serve his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Bastrop, Texas.

However, the federal prison inmate locator indicates he is currently in Sheridan, Oregon.

Which leads to the obvious question of whether Nate was subject to the infamous “diesel therapy,” the term used to describe the movement of federal inmates between prisons. The Bureau of Prisons operates Con Air, the subject of a 1997 Nicolas Cage movie, along with a fleet of buses.

Diesel therapy is an uncomfortable method of transport. Inmates are not told where they are going that day, how long they will be on the road, or what their ultimate destination is.

Travel is difficult. Inmates are handcuffed and chained at the feet. They are locked into their seats.

Critics of diesel therapy, a name that derives from the diesel fumes of a bus, say inmates placed into this system are essentially in a black hole, with no one knowing their location, including their families and their attorneys.

Today’s Fraud Friday explores the experience of former Congressman George Hansen, who testified about his own transport and offered insight into what Nate may have experienced. He compared it to the torture chambers of the Shah of Iran’s prison.

If Nate reported to Bastrop, Texas, as ordered, he ended up 2,000 miles away in Sheridan, Oregon.

Watch Fraud Friday on YouTube here