Convicted Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson and his company have been ordered to pay nearly $96 million in penalties for his “brazen and audacious” securities fraud, according to a report.
Watson, who co-founded the company, must fork over $37 million in restitution as well as a $59 million forfeiture judgment, according to the ruling in Brooklyn federal court, first reported by Bloomberg Law.
A jury convicted Watson last July on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, along with aggravated identity theft.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The scheme involved Ozy Media’s co-founder impersonating a YouTube executive on a call with Goldman Sachs bankers to mislead investors, including former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and billionaire widow Laurene Powell Jobs.
Watson pleaded not guilty.
He told The Post in a statement on Wednesday: “I strongly maintain my innocence.”
Ozy collapsed in 2021 after the New York Times exposed the fraudulent call.
Prosecutors revealed that Watson misled an investor by claiming that Google CEO Sundar Pichai had offered to buy Ozy for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Pichai later testified that no such discussions ever took place.
Watson appealed the ruling before restitution and forfeiture were formally entered.
Watson did not contest the government’s calculations of financial losses but argued there was no direct causal link between those losses and the misrepresentations.
However, the court determined that the fraud played a direct role in the financial harm suffered by investors.
Judge Eric Komitee in his ruling Sunday stated that Watson and his company misled investors about Ozy’s financial performance, partnerships and investor backing in order to secure funding and stay afloat.
The prosecution presented evidence demonstrating that each listed victim invested due to the false claims, reinforcing the argument that the fraud was a key factor in their financial losses.
Watson’s claim that the company’s indictment, rather than the fraudulent activity itself, caused investors’ losses was also dismissed by the court.
Komitee noted that given Ozy’s financial instability, it was entirely foreseeable that investors who relied on the misrepresentations could lose their entire investment.
The judge also stated that Watson and Ozy should have reasonably anticipated that their actions could lead to an indictment.
Regarding forfeiture, the judge ruled in favor of the full amount sought by the government, rejecting Watson’s argument that it should be reduced by the company’s direct costs.
The court determined that the stock sold to investors held no actual value, given Ozy’s lack of assets and the absence 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 his statement on Wednesday.
Watson accused federal prosecutors in Brooklyn of having “concocted this case — 3,000 miles from where Ozy and I actually operated” in California.
According to Watson, the feds were “relying on a narrative so absurd it would be laughable if it weren’t so serious.”
“This week’s forfeiture and restitution decision, overseen by Judge Eric Komitee — who has deep financial conflicts and could personally benefit from his ruling — was yet another troubling chapter in a case riddled with prosecutorial overreach and judicial bias.”
Watson said that “this conflicted judge ordered that Ozy and I pay millions of dollars to wealthy lenders who testified under oath that they were fully repaid, plus millions in interest.”
“Meanwhile, my family and I invested $20 million in Ozy and never took a dime. This case is a travesty of justice,” Watson said.
He has vowed to appeal the verdict.
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