Connect with us

Crime

Ozy The media went from screaming to outrage. Its founder, Carlos Watson, appeared in court

Published

on

NEW YORK (AP) – For nearly a decade, Ozy Media has projected a picture of recent media success.

The company boasted big-name interviews, an Emmy-winning television show, a vibrant festival of music and concepts, and impressive numbers to exhibit to potential investors – until it collapsed in 2021 amid doubts about its audience size, profitability and fundamental integrity .

Advertisement

These doubts at the moment are at the middle of the federal criminal trial. Founder Carlos Watson and Ozy are fighting charges of conspiracy to commit fraud.

Even after many other public and court hearings for Silicon Valley corporations that went from screaming to damage, it’s hard to forget the moment of Ozy’s downfall, when co-founder Samir Rao impersonated a YouTube executive to talk concerning the company to potential investors.

Lawyers for Watson and Ozy blame any false statements solely on Rao, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and identity theft. The defense also argued that prosecutors would criminalize common entrepreneurial bloat and single out Watson, a black founder in a tech world where there are disproportionately few African-American executives.

“I am not now and never have been a ‘fraudster,’” he said last 12 months when the costs were brought against him.

Advertisement

Prosecutors and Rao, their star witness, say Ozy straddled the road between hopeful hype and brazen fraud.

“We told so many lies to so many different people,” Rao testified after the struggling company produced rosy financial results in a desperate attempt to lure investors and stay afloat.

The hope was to enable “a diverse audience to consume hopefully a different, more meaningful type of content,” he said. But “survival within the bounds of decency, honesty and truth has evolved into survival at all costs and by any means necessary.”

“New and Next”

Ozy was founded in 2012 on the Millennial-friendly premise of providing a fresh, sophisticated but not cookie-cutter approach to politics, culture and more – what it calls “new and next” – while amplifying minority and marginalized voices.

Advertisement

The son of two South Florida teachers, Watson graduated from Harvard and Stanford, worked on Wall Street, founded and sold a test preparation company and anchored MSNBC. According to Rao, he fathered Ozy after which recruited Rao, a former colleague from the world of finance, after a probability meeting at a Chipotle restaurant in Silicon Valley.

Ozy debuted a web site, newsletters, and with a bang: former President Bill Clinton was one in all the primary interviewees. The company has expanded into podcasts, events and tv programming, winning a 2020 Emmy for Watson’s “Black Women OWN the Conversation” on the Oprah Winfrey Network. The annual Ozy Fest in New York’s Central Park has attracted big names, from John Legend to pre-presidential Joe Biden.

Testimony shows that the corporate acquired many major advertisers, clients and grants. But behind the scenes, prosecutors say, Ozy began to bleed in 2018 and resorted to lies.

“I don’t know where his numbers came from.”

The company told a possible investor that it “ended 2017 with approximately $12 million in revenue,” but gave its accountants a figure of lower than $7 million. The disparities widened through the years, reaching as much as $53 million compared to $11 million in 2020, according to testimony and documents presented throughout the trial.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, Ozy steadily delayed paying suppliers and rent, borrowed against future receipts to obtain expensive advances, and had difficulty paying salaries, former vp of finance Janeen Poutre testified.

The defense portrayed the scramble for money as a growing problem for a successful startup.

Featured Stories

“Ozy Media did not defraud its investors or anyone else,” said company attorney Shannon Frison.

Watson lawyer and Harvard Law School professor Ronald Sullivan Jr. he said his client “believed every number he gave to every investor.” Sullivan suggested that revenue figures may vary depending on whether or not they represent “in-kind” income, equivalent to promoting trading at one other outlet.

Advertisement

Poutre testified that auditors rarely agree to count such revenues and she or he didn’t think Watson was all the time honest.

“I don’t know where his numbers came from. I know where my numbers came from,” she said.

Fake emails and voice masking

The alleged programs went beyond questionable numbers.

In an attempt to get Ozy a bank loan in 2020, Rao falsified the deal by saying that Winfrey’s OWN network had renewed “Black Women OWN The Conversation” for a second season. When the bank needed information directly from the net, Rao arrange a fake email account for the actual OWN executive and used it to provide the bank with “transaction background.”

Advertisement

Rao told jurors that Watson verbally approved the charade. Jurors saw a text message from Watson urging Rao to “be brave and do this,” but “that” was not specified. Ultimately, witnesses said, there was no loan or extension of this system.

Rao’s infamous phone rang the next 12 months when Ozy was searching for an investment from Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs. He falsely claimed that YouTube was paying for Watson’s eponymous talk show. When Goldman’s bankers wanted confirmation, he downloaded a voice-modifying app and talked to them while posing as a YouTube executive.

But the bankers were wary, as the actual YouTube executive soon discovered, and Watson told the board of Goldman Sachs and Ozy that his co-founder had suffered a mental breakdown.

The investment fell through, but Goldman Sachs continued to advertise with Ozy after the episode, Rao said.

Advertisement

Rao told jurors he was taking antidepressants but was not having a mental health crisis when he called. Rao said Watson was present and gave him instructions via text messages.

“I’m a huge fan of Carlos, Samir and the show,” reads one in all the texts, which Rao explained when Watson prompted him with a line for his fake persona to say. Watson then urged, “use the right pronouns. You are NOT OZY” – amongst other messages.

– You’re a liar, aren’t you?

Watson’s lawyer said the Ozy founder stumbled upon Rao’s scam, was outraged and signaled him to hang up.

The defense emphasized that Rao drafted a 2021 letter – ultimately unsent – in which he stated that the phone ruse was entirely his doing. Rao told jurors he wrote it to protect the corporate.

Advertisement

Defense attorneys labeled him an incompetent executive, a confessed fabricator and a confessed criminal who falsely implicated Watson in hopes of avoiding prison for his own crimes.

“So, Mr. Rao, you are a liar, aren’t you?” Sullivan asked during last Friday’s hearing.

“Unfortunately,” Rao replied, “I told many lies during my time at Ozy.”

Advertisement

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

Crime

DC SEE parents for $ 20 million after the remains of the baby’s son in a funeral home a few months after alleged cremation

Published

on

By

Two parents from Washington sued the crematorium for 20 million dollars after it was found that their infant’s body decomposes, though they were told that he was creamy and allegedly obtained his remains.

On February 27, a few months after receiving what they thought were the ashes of their son, Chris Parham and Laquanda Brown received a phone call from the Maryland State Police, informing them that their son’s remains were found, NBC 4 Washington Reported.

(*20*)

Advertisement

Instead of being creamy, their son’s body was found by the police in a heavenly crematorium in Charles, Maryland, still in the clothes he was wearing during the funeral. Brown and Parham received someone’s ashes after their son’s funeral in October. Despite the discovery in February, parents still wouldn’t have the remains of their son.

During a conversation with NBC 4, Washington Parham admitted that after the first visit he had his “doubts” about his activity.

“He told me from the moment we entered the funeral home,” something is incorrect, “said Brown.

Spartan College Dean Dr. Cameisha Clark shot by the former security guard in the campus

Parham and Brown represent one case of what’s now known that it covers several victims of the already closed crematorium. According to Fox 5The crematorium related to the heavens was charged with improper behavior of 2017. The Supervisory Board of Death Services Maryland discovered that at the moment he was incorrectly stores human remains, and the operators still received repetitive sanctions. The company was formally closed in January 2025. After state researchers found human bodies in cardboard boxes arranged one on the other, with legs and arms hanging from bags, encircled by flies. They also discovered body fluids, including blood, on the floor.

From a point of view, they reported that the Governor Maryland Wes Moore opened an investigation into the state supervisory board after the heavenly borders could proceed his business despite repeated disturbing claims.

Advertisement

The son of Parham and Brown died in August at the age of just two months, and parents said each NBC 4 and Fox 5, as this discovery disturbed what a slight healing began to do.

Brown noticed how hard it was, especially after wearing a child for nine months; He was her only son.

“I won’t even be able to experience like his first date, I know what his favorite color was,” she said. “I would never know what person he would be.”

Parham and Brown sue compensation for $ 20 million to make sure the closure of the heaven -related crematorium.

Advertisement
Dominique Goods-Burke becomes the 8th mortality in January

(Tagstranslate) crime

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
Continue Reading

Crime

Sean “Diddy” Combs rejects the final contract due to the trial on sexual trade

Published

on

By

Sean “Diddy” Combs rejected his last probability to avoid a sexual trade process.

During the hearing on Thursday, a 55-year-old disgraced music mogel confirmed that he didn’t accept transactions of federal prosecutors, NBC News Reported.

Asked by the district judge Arun Subramanian, who led in New York, if he rejected the government’s offer, Diddy said: “Yes, your honor.”

Advertisement

After consulting his legal team, led by lawyer Marc Agnifilo, he didn’t plead five charges covering tribute, two cases of sexual trade and two cases of transport so as to become involved in prostitution. He denied all the allegations that were brought to him in quite a few lawsuits, wherein he accused or forced people to take part in sexual files and drug -powered sexuals.

If Diddy is found guilty, he faces an extended time behind bars. If he’s convicted of racketeers, he stands in the face of life in prison. If he’s found guilty of two allegations of sexual trade, he’s in the face of a further at the least 15 years. Meanwhile, transport for the purposes of prostitution fees has a maximum judgment of 10 years.

Seven questions we have before Sean

Details of the allegation agreement haven’t been disclosed; However, at the least one lawyer noticed NBC that it was related to a smaller sentence.

Thursday’s interrogation was the last before selecting a jury in the process, which is to start on May 5. Opening declarations to the trial are to start on May 12. The initial technique of jury began on Monday, April 28, and tons of of New Yorkers were received by questionnaires to determine their impartiality.

While Diddy, who was waiting for the trial in Brooklyn since his arrest in September, appeared in court during a trial in prison, in accordance with BBC NewsThe music director was allowed to wear “non -disconneous clothing” during the trial.

Advertisement

The judicial order specifies that COBS will “allow five button shirts, up to five pairs of pants, up to five sweaters, up to five pairs of socks and up to two pairs of shoes without lace in court”, according to BBC.

According to sales, this movement just isn’t unusual. The accused can often wear their very own clothes during trials, because prison clothes may cause some sworn to see crime by nature.

Terrence Howard claims that Sean Diddy Combs apparently wanted an intimate relationship with him

(Tagstotransate) Diddy

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
Advertisement
Continue Reading

Crime

Shooting at Elizabeth City State University leaves 1 dead, 6 wounded

Published

on

By

A 24-year-old man was killed at the Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) campus throughout the shooting on Sunday, April 27. Shooting at the Historically Black University campus at Elizabeth City in North Carolina, also hurt six others.

HBCU published statement Explaining that the shooting took place after the Yard Fest, an event that was a part of the larger Viking Fest festival, a weekly celebration of the college spirit within the campus.

Advertisement

“Six people were injured during the incident. Four durable gunshot wounds, including three ECSU students,” confirmed the university. “In addition, two other ECSU students were injured during the next confusion. Fortunately, none of the injuries is considered life -threatening, and all injured were transported to the local hospital for treatment.”

6 to take out from the New York Times article on a decrease in record levels for black men, especially in HBCUS

A 24-year-old man who was not an ECSU student was recognized as deceased. His identity is suspended in anticipation of notification of his closest relative ” – read the statement.

(*1*)

The man who died was identified as Isaiah Caldwell, According to State Bureau of Investigation.

“ECSU expands its deepest sympathies for everyone affected by this tragic event and remains involved in ensuring the security and well -being of the Viking community,” he summed up the ECSU statement.

Advertisement

Caldwell was a member of the University of Albany 2021 of the Social Organization of Scholarship Organization, Groove Phi Groove; organization He confirmed his departure through social media on Monday.

“With deep sadness and the deepest sympathy, we inform you concerning the premature passage of our beloved brother, Isaiah Caldwell (autumn 21 – great chapter data). Isaiah was tragically taken from the senseless and non -discriminatory violence from the pistol in Elżbiebeth City State University at Vikingfest at the University of State University University University.

Following shooting, the University moved to distant education for the remaining weeks of the spring semester, in keeping with Virginian-Pilot.

White house Reinstates Hbcu Scholars after suspended shock

(Tagstranslate) hbcu

Advertisement
This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement

OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe Us To Receive Our Latest News Directly In Your Inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Trending