Carlos WatsonHe is the founder and CEO This is Ozy Media has been arrested New York and charged with two counts of fraud and one count of identity theft. The Wall Street Journal First news about his arrest was reported. After years of scrutinizing the matter, law enforcement officers took action. Watson and His media company collapsed quickly and with high public profile.
Watson Publicly, he presented himself to the world as charismatic and well-connected man CEOHowever, this all ended two years back, after an article in The New York Times former Chief Operating Officer Samir Rao had impersonated a YouTube executive during a conference call with Goldman Sachs had been considering investing $40 million in the company.
Federal officials were then called in to investigate. And within five days of that story’s publication, Watson Shut Ozy Completely down with reporters’ interview notes in Google Drive, along with emails, Slack messages and more disappearing, The Sunday Review As previously reported. Three days later, however, things would get even more bizarre. Watson The following appeared: Today ShowThe company announced plans to relaunch. Ozy and Ask employees to return.
Watson’s arrest on Thursday follows a guilty plea on Tuesday from Rao, who admitted to fraud and Identity theft, claiming he has made misleading statements about investors and inflated the company’s financial performance between 2018 and 2021. John Doe pseudonym was used to enter the plea with the court’s permission, as the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office continued to investigate Ozy, the Journal reported.
An alternative former Ozy An executive plead guilty February 14, to fraud Accusations of conspiracy
A questionable history
Ozy’s fall was rapid, and It seemed that the company was able to pull it off quickly and Before it was shuttered, you could lose.
As an example, July 2019 Watson CNBC to inform his friends Ozzy that he was going on air and Sharon Osborne had invested money in his media startup. They were not friends, as it turns out. and had never invested. In fact, they had sued Watson Recent controversy over the festival name that Central Park company was holding.
“This guy is the biggest shyster I have ever seen in my life,” Sharon Osbourne stated at that time. “He’s insane.”
Watson later clarified Osbournes got shares Ozy Media in the case settlement
An ex-employee told the story The Sunday Review That will be 2021 Watson This was “the master of maneuvering around questions and not giving an exact answer.”
Get newsletters starting at Ozy People who never signed up were sent the newsletters. Former subscribers Ozy Kate Crane, deputy editor The Sunday Review A conversation about 2015 with Ozy’s then-head of audience in which she found out that traffic data given to investors and Staff “didn’t line up” with Information about your company.
However, digital outlets were a popular choice. Silicon Valley, with investments from Axel Springer, Lauren Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, SuRo Capital, and Former Ozy chair and billionaire venture capitalist Marc Lasry. According to PitchBook data (reported by The Associated Press), the company had already raised $83 Million as of April 2020. Wall Street Journal.)
2020 Watson told Axios the company brought in $50 million in revenue and achieved profitability—and It was reportedly claimed that it would be valued at $5 billion by 2025.
At the time employees were skeptical. OzyHowever, they claimed that they did not know the extent of the issues.
“I knew that there was cutting corners and biting off more than they could chew, and that they had shoddy business practices. But did I know that they were lying out their mouths about everything? No,” Joshua Eferighe is a former writer Ozy Who left? The Sunday Review In 2021.
The company had been rumored to be talking about the possibility of bringing its old products back. Ozy The Fest Event Series in the last few weeks. This is the status: Watson’s arrest, is unclear.
“We are really disappointed,” Lanny Breuer, Watson’s lawyer told the WSJ when asked about 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.”
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