Carlos Watson, the convicted Ozy Media founder-turned-fraudster who was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison late last year, had his sentence commuted by President Donald Trump on Friday as he was driving himself to prison.
Watson was sentenced in December to 10 years after being convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. As a result, he was sentenced to 116 months in prison and ordered to pay $96 million in restitution and forfeiture. However, he will no longer have to pay up as part of the commutation. He has maintained that he did not do the crimes he was convicted of, and said during his December hearing that he is being targeted and prosecuted because of his race.
Peers and longtime supporters of Watson applauded the decision on Friday, including activist Glenn E. Martin.
“We did it. Carlos Watson is not going to prison today. First and foremost, thank God for His grace, mercy and the power of redemption,” Martin, an activist who has pushed for Watson’s release, wrote in an X post. He also thanked Alice Marie Johnson, the Trump-appointed “pardon czar” who handled Watson’s case.
We did it. @CarlosWatson is not going to prison today. First and foremost, thank God for His grace, mercy and the power of redemption.
A very special note of appreciation to @AliceMarieFree. Your advocacy, compassion, and relentless pursuit of fairness have made this moment… pic.twitter.com/M5135ZYvL3
— Glenn E. Martin
(@glennEmartin) March 28, 2025
Watson and his business practices came under fire when he was found to have been impersonating other media executives on phone calls and making fake documents to deceive potential investors by lying about the financial health of the now-defunct company.
Ozy Media, which Watson launched in 2013, collapsed spectacularly in 2021 after the New York Times published an expose that accused the company of inflating its online traffic and video viewership and revealed that COO Samir Rao had impersonated a Google executive on a fundraising call with Goldman Sachs — sparking an FBI investigation.
Rao pleaded guilty last year to fraud charges as did former Ozy chief of staff Suzee Han. They both testified against Watson.
Both Watson, who is a former MSNBC anchor, and his lawyers claimed that any fraudulent activity was the fault of other Ozy employees. Watson testified that he did not intentionally pad the revenue estimates, but presented a typical financial profile for a “scrappy young company.”
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