These must-have Insider Deal household items are at unbeatable prices!CEO and co-founder of Ozy Media Carlos Watson arrives at Brooklyn Federal Court, Friday, June 7, 2024 in New York.
The hope was to enable “a diverse audience, to consume, hopefully, a different, more meaningful kind of content,” he said. But “survival within the bonds of decency, fairness, truth, it morphed into survival at all costs and by any means necessary."Ozy was founded in 2012 on a Millennial-friendly 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.
The company attracted a roster of major advertisers, clients and grants, according to testimony. But behind the scenes, prosecutors say, Ozy started bleeding money in 2018 and began trying to save itself with lies.The company told a prospective investor it “finished 2017 with approximately 12 million in revenue” but gave its accountants a number under $7 million. The gaps widened with the years, yawning to as much as $53 million-vs.
Poutre testified that auditors rarely agree to count such revenue and she did not feel Watson was always honest.While trying to get Ozy a bank loan in 2020, Rao faked a contract saying that Winfrey’s OWN network had renewed “Black Women OWN The Conversation” for a second season. When the bank wanted information directly from the network, Rao set up a phony email account for a real OWN executive and used it to offer the bank"background on the transaction.
But the bankers were wary, the real YouTube exec soon found out and Watson told Goldman Sachs and Ozy's board that his co-founder had suffered a mental breakdown. “I am a big fan of Carlos, Samir and the show,” reads one text, which Rao explained as Watson feeding him a line for his phony persona to say. Then Watson urged, “use the right pronouns. You are NOT OZY,” among other messages.Watson’s lawyer said the Ozy founder stumbled upon Rao’s deceit midstream, was appalled and signaled him to hang up.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
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