Golden Age of Fraud?

Boardroom Governance Newsletter #38 | March 7, 2023.

Art by DALL·E

“We are in the golden age of fraud” said Jim Chanos, the short-seller referred to as the “Darth Vader of Wall Street”, the “Catastrophe Capitalist” and the “LeBron James of short selling,” in an interview to the FT in October of 2020.

On February 23rd, Carlos Watson, the founder of a startup called Ozy, a media and entertainment company headquartered in Mountain View, California, was arrested by the FBI at a hotel in midtown Manhattan and charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud Ozy’s investors and lenders by making material misrepresentations about Ozy’s financial and business assets. 

According to the Department of Justice: “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,” stated United States Attorney Peace.  “Investment fraud undermines confidence in o…