Latest news with #Ozy
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Secret Svengali Behind Trump's Most Bizarre Pardon Yet Revealed
Carlos Watson was on his way to the federal correctional facility in Lompoc, California—to serve an almost 10 year prison sentence—when President Donald Trump saved him. Just hours before Watson was to surrender last Friday, he heard that Trump had commuted his sentence. The order also meant he would no longer have to pay $96 million in restitution and forfeiture. It was an extraordinary plot twist for Watson. In July, he was convicted of a massive fraud in an eight-week trial which revealed how his media company Ozy—the buzzy start-up that seemed to be inexplicably everywhere and nowhere at once throughout the 2010s—had been built on lies. I spent my summer watching that trial for a three-part podcast on Watson's rise and fall. Now, it seems, he is rising again. And dodging 10 years in federal prison might not even be the final twist in the plot. I'm told by a source close to Watson that a full pardon is still being explored and may come next. The clemency was facilitated by Dr. Topeka Sam, a prison reform activist, who was introduced to Watson by his spokesperson Juda Engelmayer. Sam is perhaps best known for bringing attention to the case of Alice Marie Johnson, a mother of five who was then serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense, ultimately inspiring Kim Kardashian to lobby the first Trump administration on her behalf. Johnson's sentence was commuted in 2018 and she was granted a full pardon 2 years later. She currently serves as the Trump administration's 'pardon czar.' Sam and Johnson remain close, according to Engelmayer. For a Black man who will tell you himself he embodies the American dream - born to teachers of modest means in Florida and educated at Harvard and Stanford – his sudden turn to Trump is shocking but not entirely surprising. Watson is a man who has always been able to talk his way into and out of anything. When Watson spoke at his sentencing in December, he turned his back to the judge and faced the gallery to talk directly to his family and friends. After thanking them for their support, he began to reel off a list of his accomplishments of his now defunct media company, concluding 'I loved what we built with Ozy.' Eventually the judge cut him off and ordered him to turn back and face the court. It felt more like a campaign stop—or acceptance speech—than the show of remorse or heartfelt plea for leniency one might expect from a man who had just months before been convicted of aggravated identity theft and conspiring to defraud investors of millions of dollars and facing up to 37 years in prison. As a reminder, Carlos Watson's company began to unravel when The New York Times published this article revealing that in Feb. 2021, Watson's co-founder, Samir Rao, used a voice changing app to impersonate a YouTube executive on a funding call with Goldman Sachs. The call was a desperate attempt by Watson and Rao to raise $45 million because Ozy was running out of cash. Instead, it led to an FBI investigation and a criminal indictment. Rao and Watson's former chief of staff Suzee Han were also indicted and turned on Watson, testifying at his trial that he was the driving force behind the fraud and a domineering leader who demanded total control. In one particularly dramatic piece of testimony, Han, who was 25 when she went to work for Watson, said that at some point the pressures of the conspiracy got so great that she told Watson she could understand 'why someone would want to kill themselves' and Watson's response was to suggest that he or Rao should go to therapy with her. Rao testified for 6 days, detailing a number of lies he helped Watson tell investors. Watson told them that Oprah was investing $10 million in Ozy (she was not). That A-Rod and Jennifer Lopez were leading an investment round (they were not). That Google's CEO had offered to buy the company for $600 million (he testified at trial that he had not). Prosecutors also said that Watson lied about the size of Ozy's audience; about TV shows he never sold; and about revenue numbers, doubling and tripling them to show enormous growth that did not exist. And because of those lies, investors put at least $75-100 million into Ozy Media over the course of six years. (Notably, Laurene Powell Jobs, who he had been friends with for 20 years, was his lead investor at launch.) But in court, Watson conceded nothing. He stood by everything he has said – even when presented with clear evidence to the contrary. He took the stand and said he did nothing that others in digital media and Silicon Valley more broadly weren't doing and that his company was brought down by ruthless competitors (The New York Times and Buzzfeed) intimidated by his enormous success. He insisted that the company was poised for a comeback when he was arrested in 2023, even though it had lost the majority of its board, investors and staff. He repeated those claims in his statement Friday, calling the cases 'baseless' and saying he was the victim of 'a malicious campaign orchestrated by a jealous competitor at a rival media company.' But he also took them a step further, saying that 'OZY... was on the brink of becoming Silicon Valley's first Black-owned publicly traded company before these wrongful actions derailed our progress.' There's no evidence that Ozy was on the brink of any such thing and plenty of evidence that it was not. It's that very tenuous relationship to the truth, the utter lack of remorse and that complete abdication of responsibility that has left some of his former employees who I spoke to over the weekend absolutely furious at this turn of events. They couldn't quite believe that he had someone managed to work the system yet again and will now likely never have to admit to any wrongdoing. It's an interesting case for the Trump administration to take up — seemingly at odds with much of their stated views on racial issues and DEI. Watson, who is black, insisted throughout his trial and sentencing that the charges against him were racially motivated. He launched a website called 'Too Black for Business' where he has railed against 'white collar racism,' pointing out that the 'hostile white judge' overseeing his case was a Trump appointee and said his prosecution was 'part of a broader pattern in America's history of tearing down Black excellence.' He called the case a 'modern lynching' in his sentencing speech. Other Black entrepreneurs have not rallied in his support, rejecting his racial framing of the charges. The most vocal, Roland Martin, called him 'OJ two point oh' and said of Watson's troubles 'If you're doing some illegal s---, don't be trying to all of a sudden cloak yourself in blackness.' And it's worth noting that U.S. Attorney Breon Peace who brought the charges against Watson is himself a Black man. Watson made no mention of any racial issues in his statement about his commutation, instead thanking the president, with whom he is not known to have a relationship, for 'his unwavering commitment to fairness and justice' and saying 'President Trump has once again demonstrated his courage in standing up against the weaponization of the legal system by unscrupulous actors who aim to destroy innovative companies.' When the judge imposed his sentence in December, he talked about Watson's 'denial of responsibility' and 'striking determination' to blame others. And he said that he was concerned that Watson would likely reoffend if given the opportunity: 'I don't see any reason why, as soon as you were able to, that you wouldn't simply repeat the behaviors that led us to this point.' That opportunity has come now, so much sooner than even Watson dared to dream it could. Listen to Susie Banikarim's full podcast The Unraveling of Ozy Media by clicking here.
Axios
31-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Trump pardons a bunch of white-collar crooks
President Trump on Friday pardoned two startup founders convicted of investor fraud, and three crypto exchange co-founders who had plead guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws. Why it matters: There's never been a better time to be a white-collar crook. Pardon 1: Trevor Milton, co-founder and CEO of bankrupt electric truckmaker Nikola Motors. His most egregious act may have been sharing a video that purported to show a fully functional prototype, whereas the truck actually was rolling down a small hill. And then there was the lying about billions of dollars in orders. Milton was sentenced to four years in prison for both securities and wire fraud, and ordered to pay nearly $700 million in restitution. He had been free on appeal, during which time he donated bigly to Trump-related groups. Oh, and his lawyer was the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Pardon 2: Carlos Watson, co-founder and CEO of defunct Ozy Media. You may remember Ozy Media for a phone call during which Watson's co-founder, who plead guilty and cooperated with prosecutors, pretended to be a YouTube executive while on a reference call with prospective investor Goldman Sachs. Plus, lots of lying about company financials and proposed deals. Watson was literally on a plane to prison when the pardon arrived. In a statement, he reiterated his argument that the prosecution was "driven by a malicious campaign orchestrated by a jealous competitor at a rival media company" — an absurd claim based on the phone call first being reported by then-NY Times reporter Ben Smith, whose former company once held takeover talks with Ozy. He also claimed that Ozy "was on the brink of becoming Silicon Valley's first Black-owned publicly traded company before these wrongful actions derailed our progress." Ozy had never filed paperwork to go public, nor were there any such conversations ever reported. Instead, it was trying to raise new VC funding. Finally, Watson thanked Alice Marie Johnson, who was famously granted clemency by President Trump after public support from Kim Kardashian. Pardon 3: Co-founders and a former employee of BitMEX, who had violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement AML and KYC procedures. The exchange itself later pleaded guilty to similar charges. The quartet had been tried by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as had been Trevor Milton. It's the same office that charged and convicted Trump, earning his public ire. Watson was tried by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
CNN
30-03-2025
- Business
- CNN
Trump pardons Trevor Milton, who was accused of fraud related to bankrupt truck maker Nikola
President Donald Trump says he pardoned Trevor Milton, the CEO of now-defunct hydrogen and electric truck firm Nikola, in part because he believed Milton was persecuted for supporting Trump's political ambitions. In October 2022, a New York jury convicted Milton on federal charges of securities fraud and wire fraud. Prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York had accused Milton of making false and misleading statements about 'nearly all aspects of the business' as it pertained to developing electric and hydrogen-powered trucks, as well as defrauding the public through social media and podcast interviews. He was sentenced in 2023 to four years in prison. He had been free on bail as he appealed the conviction. On Thursday evening, Milton posted on X that he'd received a phone call from Trump, who informed him he'd been granted a 'full and unconditional pardon.' 'This pardon is not just about me—it's about every American who has been railroaded by the government, and unfortunately, that's a lot of people,' Milton wrote. The pardon, which will spare Milton from serving time in prison, would also allow him to avoid court-ordered payments to compensate shareholders. In his remarks Friday, Trump suggested Milton's case was unfairly moved to New York from Utah. And he alleged — without evidence — that he was targeted for being a Trump supporter. 'They say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president. He supported Trump. He liked Trump. I didn't know him, but he liked him,' he said during an otherwise unrelated event. 'There are many people like that,' he added later. 'They support Trump, and they went after him.' Also on Friday, Trump commuted the sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson, just hours before he was set to surrender to prison, two people familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN. Watson was convicted last summer for defrauding investors and lying about his company's finances. He's a former cable news anchor and investment banker who was accused of lying to investors about the now-defunct startup's finances and sham deals with Google and Oprah Winfrey. In December, Watson was sentenced to nearly a decade in prison. As CNN reported at the time, Ozy imploded in 2021 after news reports questioned its audience numbers and revealed that a top executive had impersonated a YouTube executive during a call with Goldman Sachs bankers in which he claimed the streaming site agreed to pay for exclusive rights to an Ozy show. The White House declined to comment. This story has been updated with additional reporting.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump commutes Ozy Media founder's criminal fraud sentence
President Trump commuted the prison sentence of Carlos Watson, a co-founder of now-defunct digital media company Ozy Media, shortly before the entrepreneur was set to start serving a nearly decade-long jail term. 'I am profoundly grateful to President Trump for correcting this grave injustice. His decision reflects his unwavering commitment to fairness and justice for those who have been wrongfully targeted,' Watson said in Friday night's statement. Watson was sentenced in December last year to serve a 116-month-long sentence for lying to investors about the company's finances. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Watson has denied wrongdoing. The media entrepreneur claimed on Friday that the prosecution of Ozy Media and himself was 'driven by a malicious campaign orchestrated by a jealous competitor at a rival media company.' 'These baseless federal cases were pursued 3,000 miles away from where OZY was based, and things went from bad to worse when a conflicted and unethical judge took control,' Watson wrote. Last December, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said that Watson, along with co-conspirators, from 2018 to 2021, orchestrated a 'scheme to defraud investors out of tens of millions of dollars' via 'fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions' of the company's financial well-being. 'His incessant and deliberate lies demonstrated not only a brazen disregard for the rule of law, but also a contempt for the values of honesty and fairness that should underlie American entrepreneurship,' U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said at the time. Ozy, the digital media start-up, was founded in 2012, focused on profiling 'the new and the next' in politics, business, national and foreign affairs. The company shut down in 2021, less than a week after The New York Times article outlined that Ozy's Samir Rao, the firm's chief operating officer, had previously impersonated a YouTube executive during a conference call with potential investors. Watson apologized, writing that Rao was suffering from a mental health crisis, The Times reported. Trump has commuted numerous sentences since starting his second White House term. The clemencies have ranged from Jan. 6, 2021 rioters to recently commuting a four-year sentence for Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle company Nikola. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
29-03-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Trump commutes Ozy Media founder's criminal fraud sentence
President Trump commuted the prison sentence of Carlos Watson, a co-founder of now-defunct digital media company Ozy Media, shortly before the entrepreneur was set to start serving a nearly decade-long jail term. 'I am profoundly grateful to President Trump for correcting this grave injustice. His decision reflects his unwavering commitment to fairness and justice for those who have been wrongfully targeted,' Watson said in Friday night's statement. Watson was sentenced in December last year to serve a 116-month-long sentence for lying to investors about the company's finances. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Watson has denied wrongdoing. The media entrepreneur claimed on Friday that the prosecution of Ozy Media and himself was 'driven by a malicious campaign orchestrated by a jealous competitor at a rival media company.' 'These baseless federal cases were pursued 3,000 miles away from where OZY was based, and things went from bad to worse when a conflicted and unethical judge took control,' Watson wrote. Last December, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said that Watson, along with co-conspirators, from 2018 to 2021, orchestrated a 'scheme to defraud investors out of tens of millions of dollars' via 'fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions' of the company's financial well-being. 'His incessant and deliberate lies demonstrated not only a brazen disregard for the rule of law, but also a contempt for the values of honesty and fairness that should underlie American entrepreneurship,' U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said at the time. Ozy, the digital media start-up, was founded in 2012, focused on profiling 'the new and the next' in politics, business, national and foreign affairs. The company shut down in 2021, less than a week after The New York Times article outlined that Ozy's Samir Rao, the firm's chief operating officer, had previously impersonated a YouTube executive during a conference call with potential investors. Watson apologized, writing that Rao was suffering from a mental health crisis, The Times reported. Trump has commuted numerous sentences since starting his second White House term. The clemencies have ranged from Jan. 6, 2021 rioters to recently commuting a four-year sentence for Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle company Nikola.
