US President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the sentence of Ozy Media co-founder Carlos Watson, just hours before he was due to surrender to prison to serve a nearly 10-year sentence for financial fraud.
Mr Watson was found guilty last year in a high-profile case that highlighted the collapse of an ambitious start-up amid turmoil in the media industry.
He was ordered to surrender to prison on Friday.
Mr Watson thanked the president in a statement and criticised the judge who sentenced him, calling him “inconsistent and unethical”.
“I am truly grateful to President Trump for righting this grave injustice.
“His decision underlines his unwavering commitment to fairness and justice for those who have been unfairly persecuted,” Mr Watson said.
Mr Trump has used his presidential powers to commute sentences and pardon people he believes have been unfairly punished by the justice system.
The president himself was convicted last year on charges of hush money, part of what he calls a politically motivated witch hunt against him.
Mr Watson's sentence commutation was one of a series of clemency actions announced by the White House on Friday.
Among them are Trevor Milton, the founder of electric car company Nikola, who was sentenced to four years in prison for fraudulently overstating the capabilities of his technology and was given a pardon; and three entrepreneurs who founded and ran the cryptocurrency exchange Bitmex, which was ordered to pay a $100 million fine earlier this year after prosecutors alleged it “willfully violated U.S. anti-money laundering laws to increase its revenues.”
They received suspended sentences and were also pardoned.
Ozy was founded in 2012 with the aim of offering a fresh, sophisticated but not boring take on politics, culture and more, positioning itself as “new and future” while amplifying the voices of minorities and marginalized groups.
The company announced it would close in the fall of 2021, less than a week after a New York Times column raised questions about the media organization's claimed millions of viewers and readers and suggested potential securities fraud.
Mr Watson was arrested in February 2023 after two company executives pleaded guilty to fraud.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
