Carlos Watson: Last News

UPDATED with sentence: Carlos Watson, the founder and former CEO of Ozy Media, was sentenced to 116 months, or nearly ten years, in prison for conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in an unusual case that briefly captivated the media world. Watson launched the digital lifestyle and news site in 2012.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Carlos Watson and his supporters are asserting that President Donald Trump has commuted the nearly 10-year prison sentence that he received after being convicted of extensive fraud in operating his digital media startup Ozy Media. Watson was sentenced to 116 months in prison in December following his conviction on charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. It’s understood that Watson was en route to surrendering himself to federal prison authorities when he received the call alerting him that his petition for a commutation had been granted.

Carlos Watson, the founder and former CEO of Ozy Media, is not going to prison after all.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson was found guilty Tuesday by a federal jury in Brooklyn of defrauding investors in the operation of the firm that he pitched as a next-generation media company. Watson was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy charges in New York’s Eastern District circuit after an eight-week trial. He faces up to 37 years in prison.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Lawyers for Ozy Media, the defunct media and entertainment company founded by Carlos Watson, allege in a new lawsuit that Ben Smith, BuzzFeed and Semafor (the media startup co-founded by Smith in 2022) misappropriated Ozy’s trade secrets “for their own benefit.” The suit additionally alleges that BuzzFeed breached a nondisclosure agreement it entered into with Ozy in 2019 as part of its efforts to buy the company. Lawyers representing Ozy Media allege that Smith, former BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief and New York Times media columnist who is currently editor-in-chief of Semafor, wrote “a series of hit pieces” about Ozy Media but that he did not disclose “his central role in BuzzFeed’s efforts to buy Ozy two years earlier” while he was at BuzzFeed.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ozy Media has closed its doors after Carlos Watson, the digital media and entertainment company’s founder and CEO, was arrested and indicted on federal fraud charges. ⁦‪”In light of its current operational and legal challenges, the Ozy board has determined that it’s in the best interests of its stakeholders to suspend operations immediately,” the company said on its Twitter account Wednesday. The company’s website, ozy.com, was unreachable as of Wednesday evening. On Feb. 23, Watson was arrested in Manhattan and charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in what the Justice Department alleged was a scheme to defraud Ozy’s investors and lenders. Watson was also charged with “aggravated identity theft” for his role in the impersonation of “multiple media company executives” in communications with Ozy’s lenders and prospective investors in furtherance of the fraud schemes, federal prosecutors said.

Ozy Media is not in Kansas anymore. Or in any other jurisdiction. The company has decided to cease operations, according to a Twitter post today.

Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson was arrested and charged with fraud by federal investigators, according to multiple news reports.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Carlos Watson, CEO of digital media company Ozy Media, was arrested Thursday pending his arraignment on charges of federal securities fraud and wire fraud, Variety has confirmed. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, Watson’s attorney, Lanny Breuer, said, “We are really disappointed. 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.” In September 2021, the New York Times reported that Ozy Media falsified audience metrics and that its COO, Samir Rao, impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with prospective investor Goldman Sachs. The revelations led to an avalanche of other disclosures including allegations of a toxic workplace culture at the New York-based company.

In the first of what may well become a string of lawsuits against embattled Ozy Media, a fund manager that invested in the site accused it of fraud and asked for compensatory and punitive damages in a jury trial.

H.E.R. has revealed that she was nearly in a band with Kehlani and Zendaya in the early 2010s.During an interview for OZY Fest over the weekend, the singer explained to journalist Carlos Watson how she used to be in a band known as Poplyfe with Kehlani and various other members.