Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified Friday in the federal financial conspiracy trial of startup Ozzy Media, refuting allegations by founder Carlos Watson that the company had previously tried to buy the company.
Pichai told jurors that Google had considered hiring Watson as a news executive in 2021 and paying Ozzie $25 million as a sort of trade-off to lure Watson away.
“Mr Watson is a very important figure to Ozzy Media and we were looking to invest in the company to facilitate a smooth transition,” he explained.
But “Did you ever propose to buy Ozzy Media for $600 million?” prosecutor Dylan Stern asked.
“No,” said Pichai, who heads Google and its parent company Alphabet.
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai testified briefly on Friday in the federal financial conspiracy trial of Carlos Watson and Ozzy Media (Jeff Chiu/The Associated Press)
Watson later told another potential investor that Pichai himself had offered nine figures to buy Ozzie, prosecutors said.
The California-based company, which produced television shows, podcasts and a music and ideas festival, filed for bankruptcy in 2021 amid questions about whether it had materially misrepresented its viewership figures, contracts and financial situation.
Shannon Frison, an attorney for Ozzy Media, said in an emailed statement Friday that the allegation that Watson told anyone that Google had made a $600 million offer is “completely unfounded.”
“He has never had that conversation with Google, and he has never discussed it with anyone,” Frison said.
Watson and Ozzy Media have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include conspiracy to fraud. Watson says he built a solid, real company, didn't defraud anyone, and that he was being prosecuted for making, at best, entrepreneurial “mistakes.”
The defense is accusing Ozzy co-founder Samir Rao of making false statements, alleging he falsely implicated Watson in a bid to avoid prison for himself. Rao has pleaded guilty to identity theft and conspiracy to fraud and is awaiting sentencing.
He testified earlier in the trial that his “morality” was clouded by ambition, a desperation to keep the company afloat and “Carlos' deep belief that failure was not an option and that whatever he did had to be done.”
Among other fraudulent activities, Rao posed as a YouTube executive and used a phone app to disguise his voice in order to defend Ozzy to investment bankers at Goldman Sachs during a February 2021 call.
“It was one of the most unsettling calls I've had in my career,” Goldman executive Hillel Morman testified Friday, calling the incident a “surreal experience.”
Rao testified that he used the phone trick to support a false claim that YouTube was funding a talk show bearing Watson's name. Rao said Watson was present during the calls and texted him what to say. “I'm a big fan of Carlos, Samir and the show,” one text shown to the jury read.
Ronald Sullivan Jr., defending, said Watson walked into the room during the call, realised a “catastrophe” was occurring and tried to get Rao to end the conversation.
Meanwhile, among other clues that made Goldman's bankers suspicious, Mr. Moman recalled on Friday, the voice of someone he believed to be a YouTube executive sounded noticeably “off.”
Soon one of his colleagues was calling executives at Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube. The ruse was uncovered, and so was Goldman's chance of investing.
“We were lied to,” Moman explained to jurors in Brooklyn federal court.
Goldman Sachs continued to advertise with Ozzie after the incident, according to Rao's testimony.
Watson told Goldman and Ozzi's committee that Rao was experiencing a mental health crisis. Rao told jurors he was taking antidepressants at the time but was not suffering from a mental illness.
