*Carlos Watson, the embattled CEO of Ozy Media is in the news again and it’s not for a good reason. Thursday morning Watson was taken into custody after a former associate he founded Ozy with pleaded guilty to fraud charges in a secretive federal court proceeding.
In the wake of his arrest, look for Watson to be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on charges of conspiring to commit securities fraud and conspiring to commit wire fraud, according to a law enforcement official, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
It was back in 2021 after the NY Times reported that Ozy’s then-chief operating officer, Samir Rao, impersonated an executive of Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube during a fundraising call with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. That news prompted the feds to take a look at the company’s business practices which no doubt led to today’s actions.
“We are really disappointed,” Lanny Breuer, Watson’s lawyer, said of his client’s arrest. “We have been acting in good faith and believe we had a constructive dialogue with the government and are shocked by the actions this morning.”
As far as Rao’s situation, on Tuesday, he pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to fraud and identity theft charges, under a court-approved John Doe pseudonym. He admitted to a U.S. magistrate judge that between 2018 and 2021 he made misleading statements to investors and inflated the company’s financial performance. He also said he falsely used the identity of another person without the authority to do so between February 2020 and February 2021.
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Ozy Media, which has published youth-focused articles, podcasts, and videos about current events, launched in 2013 and has struggled to survive as it has faced questions about its business practices. Carlos Watson, a former Goldman Sachs banker and anchor on MSNBC, has played a prominent role in the startup’s produced content, hosting a talk show that featured interviews with well-known celebrities.
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