A jury in a Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday found Carlos Watson, founder and CEO of Ozy Media, guilty of securities fraud, identity fraud and other charges that could carry a prison sentence of up to 37 years.
Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson found guilty on all three counts in New York fraud case
The verdict will be in November.
The verdict marks the end of a two-month trial for Watson, who founded the digital news and lifestyle startup in 2012. Things seemed to be going reasonably well, a facade that exploded in 2021 when a New York Times story revealed that Ozy co-founder and chief operating officer Samir Rao had misrepresented himself during a call with Goldman Sachs by posing as a YouTube executive named Alex Piper. The idea was to cast Ozy in a positive light as it sought an investment from the bank.
The executives lied to Goldman Sachs, claiming that giant YouTube wanted to buy the rights to The Carlos Watson Show.
