Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson sentenced to nearly 10 years for defrauding investors
Former talk show host Carlos Watson was sentenced Monday to nearly 10 years in prison in a federal financial conspiracy case that cast his once-buzzy Ozy Media as an extreme of fake-it-’til-you-make-it startup culture.So extreme that another Ozy executive impersonated a YouTube executive to hype Ozy to investment bankers — while Watson coached him, prosecutors said.Watson, 55, and the now-defunct company were found guilty last summer of charges including wire fraud conspiracy.He has denied the allegations.Watson, who has been free on $3 million bond, faced a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison and potentially as much as 37 years.Prosecutors accused the former cable news commentator and host of playing a leading role in a scheme to deceive Ozy investors and lenders by inflating revenue numbers, touting deals and offers that were nonexistent or not finalized, and flashing other false indications of Ozy’s success.Watson even listened in and texted talking points while his co-founder posed as a YouTube executive to praise Ozy on a phone call with potential investors, prosecutors said.“The quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional,” US District Judge Eric Komitee said, later telling Watson: “Your internal apparatus for separating truth from fiction became badly miscalibrated.”Watson blamed any misrepresentations on others, and he said he was a target of “selective prosecution” as a black entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, where African American executives have been disproportionately few.“I loved what we built with Ozy,” he said in court Monday, initially addressing supporters in the audience before the judge suggested he turn around.
He portrayed himself as a founder who put everything he had into his company, saying that he took an average salary around $51,000 from Ozy in its final years, has triple-mortgaged his home and drives a 15-year-old car.The co-founder, Samir Rao, and former Ozy chief of staff Suzee Han pleaded g...