On federal fraud charges, the founder of the scandal-plagued US media start-up Ozy Media has been arrested.
A few days before Carlos Watson was arrested, a former company executive named Samir Rao pleaded guilty to fraud charges.
Ozy Media shut down in 2021, after an investigation by the New York Times found that Mr. Rao had tried to trick investors by pretending to be a YouTube executive.
Federal prosecutors say that Mr. Watson “led a plan to rob investors of millions of dollars.”
The company is also being looked at by the US Department of Justice and the SEC.
Mr. Watson started Ozy Media in California in 2013. He used to work as a banker for Goldman Sachs and host a show on MSNBC. The company made podcasts, TV shows, events, and profiles of rising stars and new trends that leaned to the left.
In 2020, it was worth $159m (£132m).
According to documents filed this week in federal court, Mr. Watson knew Ozy Media was “swimming in debt,” but he lied to investors about the company’s income and said celebrities and well-known companies had invested…Read More
Source: California Observer
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