President Donald Trump commuted the criminal sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson on Friday, just hours before Watson was due to begin serving a 116-month prison term for a multi-million-dollar scheme that included falsely claiming the start-up had deals with Google and Oprah Winfrey, a senior White House official said.<\/p>\n
Watson had expected to surrender Friday afternoon to the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, California, before he received word of Trump granting him executive clemency, according to a source familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n
Trump also commuted the sentence of one year of probation imposed on Ozy Media for the defunct news and entertainment company\u2019s conviction in the same case.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s actions remove the criminal penalty imposed on Watson and Ozy.<\/p>\n
Watson, 55, was convicted at trial in Brooklyn federal court last July of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced in December.<\/p>\n
In February, a federal judge ordered Watson and Ozy to pay almost $60 million in forfeiture and more than $36 million in restitution.<\/p>\n
Watson\u2019s defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, declined to comment Friday when contacted by CNBC.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, which prosecuted Watson, also declined to comment on the commutation of his sentence.<\/p>\n
Glenn Martin, a criminal justice reform advocate, in a tweet on Friday wrote, \u201cWe did it,\u201d above a photo of him and Watson.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump commuted the sentences of Ozy Media and Carlos Watson hours before his surrender,\u201d the tweet said.<\/p>\n
\u2033@CarlosWatson is not going to prison today,\u201d Martin wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, thank God for His grace, mercy and the power of redemption. A very special note of appreciation to @AliceMarieFree,\u201d he added, referring to his fellow criminal justice reform advocate Alice Marie Johnson.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour advocacy, compassion, and relentless pursuit of fairness have made this moment possible for people like Carlos.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Watson was sentenced, then-Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said, \u201cCarlos Watson orchestrated a years-long, audacious scheme to defraud investors and lenders to his company, Ozy Media, out of tens of millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said that Watson and his co-conspirators between 2018 and 2021 defrauded investors by misrepresenting Ozy\u2019s financial performance, its ongoing business relationships and its acquisition prospects, as well as its contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
Ozy abruptly shut down in October 2021, after The New York Times reported that the company\u2019s chief operating officer, Samir Rao, had impersonated a YouTube executive on a conference call with Goldman Sachs.<\/p>\n
The investment bank was considering a $40 million investment in Ozy at the time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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