. Between 2018 and 2021, he made misleading statements to investors and falsified the company's finances, he told a judge, according to The Journal's report. He also admitted to taking on another person's identity without their permission, The Journal reported.
Watson's arrest and Rao's plea follow a move last week by Suzee Han, Ozy's former chief of staff, to plead guilty to related fraud conspiracy charges, according to The Journal. Han admitted to falsifying financial information about the company at the direction of two Ozy executives, The Journal reported.
Han and Rao entered their pleas as"Jane Doe" and"John Doe," respectively, to help obscure their cases while the U.S. attorney's office continued to investigate Ozy, according to the Journal's report.The government's move to arrest and charge Watson was"disappointing," his lawyer, Lanny Breuer, told The Journal.
"We have been acting in good faith and believe we had a constructive dialogue with the government and are shocked by the actions this morning," he told The Journal. In the wake of the explosive Times articles about Ozy in fall 2021, Watson initially said he would shut down the company. Days later, though, he reversed course,After The Times' revelations, Ozy's early investors attempted to distance themselves from the company. Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective and German media giant Axel Springer said at the time that they had walked away from the business several years earlier.
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