Ozy Media has closed its doorways after Carlos Watson, the digital media and leisure firm’s founder and CEO, was arrested and indicted on federal fraud costs.
”In gentle of its present operational and authorized challenges, the Ozy board has decided that it’s in one of the best pursuits of its stakeholders to droop operations instantly,” the company said on its Twitter account Wednesday. The corporate’s web site, ozy.com, was unreachable as of Wednesday night.
On Feb. 23, Watson was arrested in Manhattan and charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in what the Justice Division alleged was a scheme to defraud Ozy’s buyers and lenders. Watson was additionally charged with “aggravated id theft” for his function within the impersonation of “a number of media firm executives” in communications with Ozy’s lenders and potential buyers in furtherance of the fraud schemes, federal prosecutors stated.
In a Twitter thread posted final Friday, Watson stated he “will combat these costs with every part I’ve, and I stay up for my day in courtroom.”
“I’m deeply dissatisfied by the federal government’s actions yesterday,” he wrote within the Feb. 24 thread. “I’m not now and by no means have been a ‘con man.’ I’m and have been, a hard-working entrepreneur who has helped construct a particular firm from scratch.” Watson continued, “I’m not saying I haven’t made errors — I’ve. But it surely’s truthful to ask, why I’ve been singled out? Ozy is an actual and beneficial firm that was constructed by an unlimited quantity of laborious work and sacrifice.”
If convicted on the costs, Watson faces a compulsory minimal sentence of two years in jail and a most sentence of 37 years’ imprisonment, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace stated.
Former Ozy COO Samir Rao and ex-chief of workers Suzee Han beforehand pleaded responsible to costs regarding their roles within the alleged fraud scheme, the Justice Division stated.
Among the many allegations within the 42-page indictment towards Watson (at this hyperlink), federal prosecutors charged that in December 2019 Watson tried to safe a mortgage by instructing Ozy’s then-CFO to ship the financial institution a faux contract between Ozy and an unidentified cable community purporting to be for a second-season renewal of one of many firm’s reveals. When the CFO refused, Rao — with Watson’s approval — despatched the faux contract with a cast signature, based on the DOJ.
As well as, from about November 2020 by February 2021, Watson and his co-conspirators tried to safe $45 million in funding for Ozy by misrepresenting the corporate’s funds, the feds alleged. In line with prosecutors, Watson advised the potential investor {that a} “well-known on-line video service” — which was apparently YouTube — had paid Ozy practically $6 million in licensing income for his speak present, “The Carlos Watson Present.” That was a lie, based on prosecutors. In February 2021, Rao held a name with staff of the monetary establishment “throughout which he impersonated a media govt from the web video service utilizing a voice alteration software that he downloaded onto his mobile phone to masks his voice through the name,” the Justice Division stated. Throughout that decision, Watson was in the identical room as Rao and texted Rao directions about what to say and what to not say on the decision, prosecutors alleged. When staffers on the monetary establishment later confronted Watson in regards to the deception, he falsely claimed that Rao “had acted alone” had impersonated the media govt as “a results of a psychological breakdown,” based on the indictment.
In September 2021, the New York Occasions reported that Ozy falsified viewers metrics and that Rao had impersonated a YouTube govt on a name with potential investor Goldman Sachs. Within the wake of the Occasions story, Ozy chairman Marc Lasry, proprietor of the Milwaukee Bucks and head of a hedge fund that raised $35 million in funding for Ozy in 2019, resigned from the corporate. As well as, A&E dropped a manufacturing it had within the works with Ozy Media
Watson co-founded Ozy Media in 2013, described as “a multiplatform media firm that goals to assist curious folks see a broader and bolder world.” He beforehand had stints as a political commentator and host at CNN and MSNBC.
