Ex-TV host Carlos Watson convicted in trial over collapse of startup Ozy Media

NEW YORK (AP) — Former TV personality Carlos Watson was convicted Tuesday in a federal financial conspiracy case about Ozy Media, an ambitious startup that collapsed after another executive impersonated a YouTube executive to hype the company’s success.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced on X that a jury found Watson guilty of all three charges against him: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Prosecutors alleged that Watson conspired to deceive investors and lenders in order to keep the cash-strapped company alive.

Watson pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations. Watson testified that Ozy’s cash squeezes were standard startup speed bumps and that materials given to investors noted that the information wasn’t audited and could change — “like ‘buyer beware,’” he said.

The defense blamed any misrepresentations on Ozy co-founder and chief operating officer Samir Rao, who has pleaded guilty.

Watson, a cable news host who’d worked on Wall Street and sold his own education-related startup, conceived of Ozy in 2012. The company produced shows and gave “Ozy Genius” awards to college students. It interviewed President Bill Clinton, won an Emmy Award and produced an annual music-and-ideas festival that President Joe Biden attended in 2017, when he was a former VP.