Reports show that convicted Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson and his company are ordered to pay a penalty of about $96 million for his “brave and bold” securities fraud.
According to a Brooklyn Federal Court ruling, Watson, who co-founded the company, will need to grant more than $37 million in compensation and a forfeiture of more than $59 million. Reported by the Bloomberg Act.
Last July, the ju judge was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud along with identity theft.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The scheme includes YouTube executives in calling with Goldman Sachs bankers to mislead investors, including former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and billionaire widow Lauren Powell Jobs. The co-founder of Ozy Media, who was impersonating, was involved.
Watson pleaded not guilty.
He told the post in a statement Wednesday: “I am strong innocence.”
Ozy collapsed in 2021 after the New York Times exposed its fraudulent call.
Prosecutors revealed that Watson misunderstood investors by claiming Google CEO Sundar Pichai offered to buy Ozy for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Pichai later testified that no such argument had been made to date.
Watson appealed the ruling before the compensation and forfeiture were formally entered.
Watson did not challenge the government's calculation of financial losses, but argued that there was no direct causal relationship between these losses and misrepresentation.
However, the court found that fraud played a direct role in the economic harms that investors suffered.
Judge Eric Comite on Sunday in his ruling, Watson and his company misunderstood investors about Ozzy's financial performance, partnerships and investor support because they secured funds and floated. I stated.
Prosecutors presented evidence that each listed victim invested in false claims, reinforcing the argument that fraud is a key factor in their financial losses.
The allegation was that Watson's argument that the company's indictment itself caused investors' losses, not the fraud itself.
Komitee said given Ozy's economic instability, it is completely foreseeable that investors who rely on misrepresentation could lose their entire investment.
The judge also said Watson and Ozzy should have reasonably expected that their actions could lead to charges.
Regarding the confiscation, the judge rejected Watson's claim that the government should back the full amount it is seeking and should be reduced by the company's direct costs.
The court found that the shares sold to investors do not retain actual value given the lack of Ozy's assets and the lack of interest from third parties in its content library.
“Ozy was a real company with real programs, real revenue and real corporate governance,” Watson said in a statement Wednesday.
Watson accused federal prosecutors in Brooklyn of creating the case from 3,000 miles from where Ozzy and I actually ran in California.
According to Watson, the federal government “relies on the story and if it wasn't that serious it would be hilarious.”
“This week's forfeiture and compensation decision overseen by Judge Eric Comite — a deep financial conflict that can benefit personally from his ruling — is the prosecution overreach and judicial bias. It was yet another troubling chapter in the incident filled with things.”
“This dispute judge ordered Ozy and I to pay millions of dollars to wealthy lenders who have been fully repaid under oath and testified to millions of profits.” .
“On the other hand, my family and I invested $20 million in Ozy and never took Dime. This incident is a tragedy of justice,” Watson said.
He vowed to appeal the verdict.
