The former head of Ozy Media, Carlos Watson, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in an alleged fraud involving the failed content startup. Watson had pleaded not guilty and continued to maintain his innocence, but U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee handed down the sentence, stating that the “quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional.”
Watson’s conviction was part of a larger scale fraud, with prosecutors seeking a 17-year sentence and a multimillion-dollar forfeiture to the government. The sentence is a significant reduction from the maximum of 37 years in prison that Watson faced.
Ozy Media’s rise and fall closely tracked the broader internet media bubble of the 2010s. The company sought to ride the investment wave generated by the likes of BuzzFeed and Vice, which were attracting billions in venture capital. However, both of those firms have themselves faced financial reckonings, with BuzzFeed narrowly avoiding being delisted from the stock market and Vice filing for bankruptcy protection.
During the Watson trial, a former lieutenant, Samir Rao, testified that Ozy faced immense pressure to stay afloat and had crossed moral boundaries to do so. Rao, who pleaded guilty, stated that Watson had sanctioned all his falsehoods.