Ozy Media’s Carlos Watson was arrested this week, as our mainFT colleagues have reported.
We at Alphaville are always up for some interesting Friday reading, so we took a quick look at the government’s complaints.
The allegations include: Fake revenue, fake contracts, fake representations of investor interest, two impersonations of other companies’ executives, and this email from Ozy’s former CFO:
This . . . is illegal. This is fraud. This is forging someone’s signature with the intent of getting an advance from a publicly traded bank . . .
To be crystal clear, what you see as a measured risk — I see as a felony. Did either of you (Carlos, when you asked me to put together a contract and / or Samir, when you sent the email) have any idea (or did it even occur to you to care) that I could go to jail for forgery and bank fraud?
Find the SEC charges here, and the DOJ complaint here.
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