On the same day that a Manhattan criminal jury delivered a guilty verdict in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial, another big case involving an alleged grifter was just kicking off in Brooklyn. It began with testimony from the star witness, a former Ozy Media executive who had used a voice changer to impersonate a YouTube executive on a phone call with Goldman Sachs. While Manhattan prosecutors grilled Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey over a range of corruption charges, Google’s CEO was on the stand in Brooklyn countering claims made by a news startup that were intended to dupe major investors out of millions.
What the criminal fraud case United States v. Carlos Watson and Ozy Media lacked in title name recognition, the trial made up for with testimony about fake contracts involving Oprah Winfrey, an impersonation of an OWN executive, and a series of exaggerated deals with such celebrities as Jennifer Lopez, former Major League Baseball star Alex Rodriguez, Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry and Apple heir Laurene Powell Jobs. Did I mention an appearance by Google CEO Sundar Pichai? Well, I just did.
