March 28 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the criminal sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson, a few hours before he was due to begin serving a 116-month prison term in California.
Also, Watson and Ozy Media, his defunct news and entertainment company, won’t have to pay almost $60 million in forfeiture and more than $36 million in restitution.
Trump didn’t post the news on Truth Social but the commutation was confirmed to media outlets by the Trump administration, including CNBC and CNN.
District Judge Eric R. Komitee issued the sentence in December before Trump returned to the White House the next month.
Watson, 55, was convicted of a multi-million-dollar scheme that included falsely claiming the startup had deals with Google and Oprah Winfrey.
Watson was to surrender Friday afternoon to the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, Calif.
Trump also committed the one-year probation of Ozy Media, a defunct news and entertainment company, that was convicted in the same case.
Onetime chief operating officer Samir Rao and Chief of State Suzee Han each pleaded guilty to charges last year.
Watson founded the company in 2012, producing left-learning content, until it closed in 2023.
His Black Women OWN the Conversation” aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network and won an Emmy.
He interviewed Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and John Legend.
The New York Times in 2021 reported its business practices.
In Brooklyn federal court last July, Watson was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Watson called the case a “modern lynching” and believed he was being targeted by Brooklyn prosecutors because of his Black race.
“Carlos Watson orchestrated a years-long, audacious scheme to defraud investors and lenders to his company, Ozy Media, out of tens of millions of dollars,” Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said in a news release. “His incessant and deliberate lies demonstrated not only a brazen disregard for the rule of law, but also a contempt for the values of honesty and fairness that should underlie American entrepreneurship. On far too many occasions, Watson chose deceit over candor, grasping for the illusion of business success and personal acclaim at any cost. Today’s sentence should serve as a warning to those who would engage in fraud that justice will be swift and certain.”
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