The former head of Ozy Media has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in an alleged fraud involving the failed content startup.
Carlos Watson was facing a maximum of 37 years in prison after his July conviction on securities and wire fraud charges. Prosecutors had sought a 17-year sentence and multimillion-dollar forfeiture to the government.
“The quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional,” U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee said in handing down the sentence, according to The Associated Press. He later told Watson: “Your internal apparatus for separating truth from fiction became badly miscalibrated.”
Watson pleaded not guilty to the charges and has continued to maintain his innocence.
The rise and fall of Ozy closely tracked the broader internet media bubble of the 2010s. The group attempted to ride the investment wave generated by the likes of BuzzFeed and Vice, which were attracting billions in venture capital.
Both of those firms have themselves faced financial reckonings: BuzzFeed narrowly avoided being delisted from the stock market, while Vice filed for bankruptcy.
During the Watson trial, a former lieutenant explained the pressures Ozy came under to stay afloat — and the boundaries it crossed to do so.
“Survival within the bounds of decency, fairness, truth, it morphed into survival at all costs and by any means necessary,” former Ozy Chief Operating Officer Samir Rao told jurors, saying that Watson had sanctioned all his falsehoods. Rao himself pleaded guilty.