Former talk show host Carlos Watson was sentenced Monday to nearly 10 years in prison in a federal financial conspiracy case that cast his once-buzzy Ozy Media as an extreme of fake-it-'til-you-make-it startup culture.
So extreme that another Ozy executive impersonated a YouTube executive to hype Ozy to investment bankers — while Watson coached him, prosecutors said.
Watson even listened in and texted talking points while his co-founder posed as a YouTube executive to praise Ozy on a phone call with potential investors, prosecutors said.
Ozy Media was his second startup, coming a decade after he sold a test-prep company that he had founded while in his 20s.
Meanwhile, Ozy gave prospective investors much bigger revenue numbers than those it reported to accountants, according to testimony and documents.
Persons:
Carlos Watson, —, Watson, texted, Ozy, Eric Komitee, Samir Rao, Suzee Han, Oprah Winfrey, Janeen Poutre
Organizations:
Ozy Media, U.S, Federal, Prosecutors, District, Harvard University, Stanford Law School, CNN, MSNBC, Oprah, New York Times
Locations:
Brooklyn , New York, U.S, Silicon Valley, Ozy, View , California