Ozy Media has stiffed a dozen college kids out of their $10,000 “Genius Awards” after the troubled news site’s disgraced founder Carlos Watson was arrested on federal fraud charges, The Post has learned.
The ambitious students — considered one of them a budding TikTok influencer, others aspiring educators and tech entrepreneurs — have been caught up within the stunning implosion of Ozy Media, which boasted high-profile backers including billionaire Marc Lasry and Laurene Powell Jobs, only to face federal scrutiny over shady business practices.
Ozy Media launched its Genius Awards in 2015.
Past recipients included Amanda Gorman, a former National Youth Poet Laureate, who gained national prominence in 2021 after she recited an original poem titled “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration.
The most recent recipients were told in December that Ozy would supply them with months of funding, expert mentorship and free publicity for his or her startups to “help them realize their dreams.”
As an alternative, two students told The Post that Ozy Media has cut off all contact since mid-March – days after Watson was arrested on allegedly bilking investors out of $50 million – leaving them with none funding for his or her budding projects and a hole on their resume as an alternative.
A 3rd student, who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity, confirmed their accounts.
This system’s presenting sponsor, AT&T, also has been silent on the situation.
“It’s been, truthfully, such a roller coaster,” Youssef Hasweh, a 2023 Genius Award winner and 21-year-old junior on the University of Chicago, told The Post.
Ozy Media’s repute went up in flames after a series of damning reports by the Recent York Times and other outlets in late 2021 — including one that exposed a top Ozy Media official had bizarrely impersonated a YouTube executive while looking for to secure an investment from Goldman Sachs.
The collapse accelerated in February, when the feds accused Watson of running the once high-flying startup “like a criminal organization” and attempting to bilk investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“I took a selfie with Carlos. I loved him after I met him,” said Hasweh. “I believe among the most charismatic people can haven’t the most effective intentions. I don’t think it is a relationship that will be recovered.”
Watson, who faces 37 years in prison, was accused of attempting to trick a prospective investor by faking a $600 million takeover offer for Ozy, amongst other alleged misdeeds.
Hasweh, meanwhile, had planned to make use of the funds he won to launch a student-led scholarship advocacy program for low-income highschool students.
“When our junior-year internship was purported to be the most important internship on our resume, the most important job opportunity to this point on our CV, plenty of us will find yourself working part-time jobs or barely finding funds to support ourselves this summer, which is totally devastating,” added Hasweh, who has amassed greater than 100,000 followers on TikTok, where he shares education-related advice.
The scholars say they last heard from Ozy in mid-March, when Beverly Watson, Carlos’s sister and the managing editor, told them the corporate was “forced by the circumstances to suspend its operations,” in response to an email obtained by The Post.
Beverly Watson said she didn’t have “any firm answers” in regards to the Genius program’s future and signaled she would supply one other update by the top of March.
“That said, must you find additional opportunities for financing your summer– please do explore them,” Watson told Hasweh in a March 16 email.
A day later, an attorney representing Ozy emailed not less than one student to say that prosecutors had “killed operations” and “eliminated all income” by taking motion against the corporate.
The attorney added that Ozy’s caretakers were making “efforts to recuperate any assets to make a distribution to creditors,” but never followed up.
This yr’s Genius Awards were being offered in partnership with AT&T and its “Dream in Black” campaign to “give special emphasis to students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” in response to a press release last September.
An AT&T spokesperson said the corporate was “extremely upset to learn that the winners of the Ozy Genius Awards were affected by the shutdown of Ozy Media.”
“We wish to be sure that that these students receive the stipends that they were promised, and we’re looking into this to see what we are able to do,” the spokesperson added.
When reached for comment, Kenneth Montgomery, a lawyer representing Ozy Media and the Watson family within the upcoming fraud trial, blamed the corporate’s inability to follow through on its funding pledge on the federal indictment — which targeted each Watson as a person and the corporate itself.
“The proven fact that deserving students have been deprived of funding for his or her college education is a collateral consequence of the federal government’s unprecedented prosecution of OZY Media, considered one of the one Black owned media firms in Silicon Valley,” Montgomery said in an announcement to The Post.
“The unwarranted criminal charges brought the corporate to a whole standstill and compelled the cessation of operations,” Montgomery added. “The Watson family firmly believes in making higher education accessible to all, which is why they co-founded Achieva College Prep Service well before Mr. Watson founded OZY.”
“Any people or entities who’ve valid claims under the corporate dissolution process will probably be eligible to submit their claims,” he added.
Ozy first contacted this yr’s group of winners last December and immediately began a promotional campaign for the Genius program. All 12 winners filmed clips for “The Carlos Watson Show,” that are still viewable on YouTube and Twitter.
Students received a rough timeline for the way this system would proceed. One-on-one meetings with Ozy staffers were arrange for February and a connection to an expert “mentor” for May.
The period of June 21 to Sept. 22 was slated for “project implementation,” with a final showcase of every winner’s accomplished work scheduled for Sept. 29.
Ozy said the scholars were eligible for “project funds” of as much as $10,000, which could be delivered in “three tranches” starting in June.
Hasweh said he and the opposite students were “just a little confused” when most of February got here and went with no follow-up from Ozy Media, but decided to offer the corporate more time to reply.
As an alternative of an update, the scholars were blindsided by news of Watson’s arrest.
“I googled Ozy Media, simply to see what was up, and that’s after I saw they were actually under investigation,” said Myron Layese, a 21-year-old senior at Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. “I used to be like wow, well, that happened. It literally just got here out of left field.”
With none guidance from Ozy Media, the scholars are actually left with no alternative but to hunt other sources of support for his or her projects – or abandon them entirely.
“We had signed contracts, we were committed, and we had been getting communication that didn’t make us think that this was going to go awry,” Hasweh said. “Now all of us shouldn’t have internship opportunities, full-time opportunities – and now it’s too late to use.”
“As of right away, I’m still pretty open to whatever’s going to come back of it,” added Layese, who planned to make use of the cash to fund a virtual reality app called “Stage Fright,” which might use biometric data to assist musicians overcome performance anxiety. “I’m really hoping it’s not a lost cause.”
Leading as much as publication of this story, the scholars also expressed frustration that AT&T, the headlining sponsor, hasn’t made an effort to speak.
“I’d like for them to talk up, or not less than make a comment or something,” said Layese. “I believe it is sensible for them to take some ownership.”
Two other Ozy executives, former chief operating officer Samir Rao and chief of staff Suzee Han, have already pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges. In a separate case, the SEC charged Watson with attempting to scam investors out of some $50 million.
Watson has maintained his innocence. In February, Watson’s lawyer, Lanny Breuer, said he was “deeply upset” in the choice to arrest his client, who had been cooperative with investigators.
Months after Watson’s arrest, Hasweh stays particularly upset in regards to the proven fact that Ozy cited its work with “the Ozy Genius Awards supporting greater than 50 young creators” in a defensive statement shared on Instagram on Feb. 24.
“Behind the scenes, I’m struggling to even know if I’m going to have a possibility this summer and so they’re form of putting us on this podium and this pedestal to make Ozy look higher,” Hasweh said.