Trump commutes sentence of media figure who falsely claimed he had deals with Google and Oprah

President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of Ozy Media co-founder Carlos Watson just hours before he was due to report to prison for a nearly 10-year-sentence in a financial conspiracy case.

Watson was convicted last year in a closely watched case that showcased the implosion of an ambitious startup company at a time of turmoil in the media industry. 

He had been ordered to surrender to prison on Friday.

The commutation was confirmed by a senior White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the decision and spoke on condition of anonymity. A lawyer who represented Watson declined to comment.

Trump has aggressively used his presidential power to commute sentences and issue pardons for people who he believes were treated unfairly by the justice system. 

The president himself was convicted last year in a case involving hush money payments, part of what he has described as a politically motivated witch hunt against him.

Ozy was founded in 2012 on a premise of providing a fresh, sophisticated-but-not-stuffy take on politics, culture and more – billed as ‘the new and the next’ – while amplifying minority and marginalized voices.

It announced it was shutting down in fall 2021 less than a week after a New York Times column raised questions about the media organization’s claims of millions of viewers and readers while also pointing out a potential case of securities fraud.

The president himself was convicted last year in a case involving hush money payments, part of what he has described as a politically motivated witch hunt against him

Watson was arrested in February 2023 after two of the company’s top executives pleaded guilty to fraud charges.

Prosecutors said Watson deceived investors and lenders by inflating revenue numbers and suggesting deals were final when they were not. 

At one point, Watson’s co-founder pretended to be a YouTube executive on a phone call with potential investors, according to prosecutors.

After Watson’s sentencing, then-Brooklyn US Attorney Breon Peace said the jury had determined that ‘Watson was a con man who told lie upon lie upon lie to deceive investors into buying stock in his company.’

Ozy Media ‘collapsed under the weight of Watson´s dishonest schemes,’ Peace said.

But Watson, who is black, called the case ‘a modern lynching’ and argued that he was the victim of ‘selective prosecution.’

‘I made mistakes. I’m very, very sorry that people are hurt, myself included,’ Watson said, but ‘I don’t think it’s fair.’

US District Judge Eric Komitee said during sentencing that the ‘quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional.’

Watson, the son of Jamaican immigrants, was born and raised in Miami. He later graduated from Harvard University and Stanford Law School

US Attorney Breon Peace called Watson ‘a con man whose business strategy was based on outright deceit and fraud’

Watson hosted several of the TV programs, including the Emmy-winning ‘Black Women OWN the Conversation,’ which appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Network

Watson held degrees from Harvard University and Stanford Law School, worked on Wall Street, had on-air gigs at CNN and MSNBC, and boasted entrepreneurial chops.

Ozy Media was his second startup, coming a decade after he sold a test-prep company that he had founded in his 20s.

Mountain View, California-based Ozy produced TV shows, newsletters, podcasts and a music and ideas festival  

Watson hosted several of the TV programs, including the Emmy-winning ‘Black Women OWN the Conversation,’ which appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Ozy snagged big advertisers, clients and grants. But beneath the outward signs of success was an overextended company that struggled – and dissembled – to stay afloat after 2017, according to insiders´ testimony.

The company strained to make payroll, ran late on rent and took out pricey cash advances to pay bills, former finance vice president Janeen Poutre told jurors.

Meanwhile, Ozy gave prospective investors much bigger revenue numbers than those it reported to accountants, according to testimony and documents.

Ozy Founder Carlos Watson speaks onstage during Ozy Fest 2018 at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park on July 21, 2018. The company claimed to have sold 20,000 tickets to a venue with a capacity of 5,000 

Watson’s commutation was among a string of other acts of clemency revealed by the White House on Friday. 

They included Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle company Nikola, who had been sentenced to four years for fraudulently exaggerating the potential of his technology and was pardoned.

Three entrepreneurs who founded and helped run the cryptocurrency exchange BITMEX were also pardoned.

The trio had been ordered to pay a $100 million fine earlier this year after prosecutors said they ‘willfully flouted US anti-money laundering laws to boost revenue.’ 

They had been sentenced to probation.