Former TV host Carlos Watson gets nearly 10 years in prison in case about failed startup Ozy Media

NEW YORK — Former speak present host Carlos Watson was sentenced Monday to almost 10 years in jail in a federal financial conspiracy case that forged his once-buzzy Ozy Media as an excessive of fake-it-’til-you-make-it startup tradition.

So excessive that one other Ozy government impersonated a YouTube government to hype Ozy to funding bankers — whereas Watson coached him, prosecutors mentioned.

Watson, 55, and the now-defunct firm were found guilty final summer season of expenses together with wire fraud conspiracy. He has denied the allegations.

Watson, who has been free on $3 million bond, confronted a compulsory minimal sentence of two years in jail and doubtlessly as a lot as 37 years.

Prosecutors accused the previous cable information commentator and host of taking part in a number one function in a scheme to deceive Ozy buyers and lenders by inflating income numbers, touting offers and gives that had been nonexistent or not finalized, and flashing different false indications of Ozy’s success.

Watson even listened in and texted speaking factors whereas his co-founder posed as a YouTube government to reward Ozy on a cellphone name with potential buyers, prosecutors mentioned.

“The quantum of dishonesty on this case is outstanding,” U.S. District Decide Eric Komitee mentioned, later telling Watson: “Your inner equipment for separating fact from fiction grew to become badly miscalibrated.”

Watson blamed any misrepresentations on others, and he mentioned he was a goal of “selective prosecution” as a Black entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, the place African American executives have been disproportionately few.

“I liked what we constructed with Ozy,” he mentioned in courtroom Monday, initially addressing supporters within the viewers earlier than the decide urged he flip round. He portrayed himself as a founder who put every part he had into his firm, saying that he took a median wage round $51,000 from Ozy in its remaining years, has triple-mortgaged his house and drives a 15-year-old automobile.

The co-founder, Samir Rao, and former Ozy chief of employees Suzee Han pleaded responsible and are awaiting sentencing. Each testified towards Watson.

Ozy, based in 2012, was styled as a hub of stories and tradition for millennials with a world outlook.

Watson boasted a formidable resume: levels from Harvard College and Stanford Legislation Faculty, a stint on Wall Road, on-air gigs at CNN and MSNBC, and entrepreneurial chops. Ozy Media was his second startup, coming a decade after he bought a test-prep firm that he had based whereas in his 20s.

Mountain View, California-based Ozy produced TV exhibits, newsletters, podcasts, and a music-and-ideas festival. Watson hosted a number of of the TV packages, together with the Emmy-winning “Black Girls OWN the Dialog,” which appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Community.

Ozy snagged massive advertisers, purchasers and grants. However beneath the outward indicators of success was an overextended firm that struggled — and dissembled — to remain afloat after 2017, based on insiders’ testimony.

The corporate strained to make payroll, ran late on lease and took out dear money advances to pay payments, former finance vp Janeen Poutre instructed jurors. In the meantime, Ozy gave potential buyers a lot greater income numbers than these it reported to accountants, based on testimony and paperwork.

On the witness stand in July, Watson mentioned the corporate’s money squeezes had been only a startup norm and its buyers knew they had been getting unaudited numbers that would change.

Ozy disintegrated in 2021, after a New York Instances column disclosed the phone-call impersonation gambit and raised questions concerning the true dimension of the startup’s viewers.