Carlos Watson, CEO of Ozy Media, departs U.S. Federal Court in Brooklyn after being arrested and charged with fraud in New York City, New York, U.S., February 23, 2023. 

David Dee Delgado | Reuters

Ozy Media and founder Carlos Watson were convicted of fraud by a Brooklyn federal jury on Tuesday, in a case accusing them of lying to investors about the now-defunct startup’s finances and sham deals with Google and Oprah Winfrey. Watson, a former cable news anchor and investment banker, and Ozy were charged with securities fraud and wire fraud conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors said Watson and his California-based news and entertainment company falsified information about Ozy’s finances and audience size, fabricated contracts and inflated earnings projections to court investors.

Founded in 2013, 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.

Watson had pleaded not guilty. His lawyer told jurors that he was betrayed by deputies who acted on their own and kept him in the dark about their wrongdoing. The verdict follows a six-week trial that featured testimony by two former Watson deputies, who pleaded guilty to fraud. They told jurors they conspired with Watson to hide Ozy’s crippling debt, meager cash reserves and slow growth.

Ozy folded shortly after the New York Times reported on former chief operating officer Samir Rao’s impersonation of the YouTube executive. Watson denied involvement in the incident, though prosecutors said contemporaneous chat logs show he coached Rao on what to say. The YouTube executive Alex Piper and Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified for the government, saying they never had deals with Ozy or considered buying it at any price, contrary to Watson’s claims to investors.

Prosecutors said Watson also assured investors that Ozy was thriving even as its cash reserves sank to $19,000 in 2018, as it struggled to pay rent, wages and other basic expenses.

Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson sits during a hearing after he and the company were criminally charged for scheming to defraud investors of tens of millions dollars by misrepresenting the company’s debts, financial performance and audience size, at a Brooklyn courthouse in New York, U.S., February 23, 2023 in this courtroom sketch. 

Jane Rosenberg | Reuters

Watson testified for several days in his own defense. He said prosecutors’ view of Ozy’s finances was simplistic and failed to appreciate the nuances of media industry dealmaking. He also blamed negative press coverage for Ozy’s demise.

During cross-examination, Watson was at times evasive about the inconsistent revenue figures Ozy provided to investors.

He also declined a prosecutor’s request to break down Ozy’s annual revenue in cash rather than future potential earnings.

“That’s not the way I’ve thought about it before and that’s not the way our investors thought about it,” he said.