YOU OVERDID IT, MR. FED
Media mogul’s lawyers rip B’klyn U.S. att’y for calling client a ‘con man’
Brooklyn’s top federal prosecutor went too far when he called Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson a “con man” who ran a “criminal organization,” the disgraced media mogul’s lawyers told a judge Monday.
Lawyers for Watson, who is accused of orchestrating a web of lies to make investors think his faltering multimedia company was worth putting money into, took issue with Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace’s statement about his arrest last month.
“We think that statement crosses the line from permitted description of the allegation in the indictment into improper comment on the defendant’s character,” defense lawyer Noam Biale told Brooklyn Federal Judge Eric Komitee, asking prosecutors to take Peace’s statement down from the Justice Department website. “That statement being out there has the potential to taint any jury pool.”
Peace said in a press release Feb. 23, “As alleged, Carlos Watson is a con man whose business strategy was based on outright deceit and fraud — he ran Ozy as a criminal organization rather than as a reputable media company.”
Biale also suggested the statement might bias a grand jury currently sitting on the case, which could bring additional charges.
“The inflammatory, prejudicial comments made by the U.S. attorney crossed the line from a simple description of the allegations in the indictment to outrageous character assassination,” Biale told reporters outside the courtroom.
Peace’s office declined to comment Monday.
Since its founding in 2013, Ozy has produced newsletters,
TV shows, podcasts and a festival called Ozy Fest. Prosecutors say Watson committed fraud to secure tens of millions of dollars in investments and loans as the company’s debts grew.
Executives forged documents, faked financial records and, in one wild moment of deception, co-founder Samir Rao had impersonated a YouTube executive during a business call with Goldman Sachs, according to the indictment.
Rao, Ozy’s chief operating officer, and Suzee Han, Ozy’s chief of staff from June 2019 to October 2021, have previously pleaded guilty to charges relating to their roles in the scheme.
As a condition of his $1 million bond, Watson is not allowed to communicate with anyone at Ozy — a restriction his lawyer said he plans to contest.
Watson phoned into the court conference from California.
The media company is in the process of “winding down,” Biale said.
“The immediate need is for Mr. Watson to be able to speak to employees.”
He also asked prosecutors to return the two phones and laptop seized when the FBI arrested Watson in a Manhattan hotel.
The government had no warrant to seize them, and still has not submitted a warrant to search them, Biale said.