Carlos Watson says that Trump has converted his prison sentence for fraud
Carlos Watson and his supporters claim that President Donald Trump converted the almost 10-year prison sentence he received after he was convicted of extensive fraud in operating his digital media startup Ozy Media.
Watson was sentenced in December to 116 months in prison after his conviction for accusation of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. It is clear that Watson was on the road to surrender to the federal prison authorities when he received the call that warned him that his petition had been granted for a commutation.
The case was handled by the office of Trump’s newly appointed ‘Pardon Czar’, Alice Marie Johnson. The cause of Watson was defended by activist and entrepreneur Glenn E. Martin, who brought Trump’s decision In an X post.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Watson was confronted with federal fraud after his startup of Digital Media Digital Media collapsed as shocking stories about brutal fraud in the operation of the company. The most extreme case that received the attention of the federal prosecutors in New York came in a New York Times from 2021 that Watson’s partner in Ozy Media, Samir Rao, had nominated as managers of large media companies, since the couple wanted to attract a capital of investors from investors.
Rao pleaded guilty of securities fraud and wire fraud and testified against Watson. He was sentenced to probation.
Watson launched Ozy Media in 2013 and raised $ 30 million to publish a website, newsletters and video content. According to evidence during the process, the company struggled to succeed, and Watson was forced to accept debts and seek extra investments. Public prosecutors led to that Watson was routinely lying about the turnover of the company and the income projections, causing investors from millions of dollars to light up.
Watson was convicted on all points.
He and his allies aggressively pushed back on the charges before, during and after the trial. A website – Tooblackforbusiness.org – argued that Watson was “railway” and the case in racial terms by a biased judge and said that it was part of “America’s history of demolishing Black Excellence.”
In February, Watson was instructed to pay $ 96 million in refund and forfeiture.
