Ozy Media sued for not paying $1.3M legal bills following multiple litigations and federal investigations
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Ozy Media, which was launched almost a decade ago with an aim to be among a few top media houses to be run by people of color, has been sued for not paying nearly $1.3 million in legal bills. The organization was allegedly exposed by New York Times in a bombshell report where the chief operating officer Samir Rao was accused of impersonating the voice of YouTube Originals executive Alex Piper on the call with the potential investor Goldman Sachs in a meeting in October 2021. Later in an appearance on 'Today Show', Ozy Media CEO and co-founder Carlos Watson reportedly suggested it was Rao’s mental health crisis that led to that incident.
During the investigation by the New York Times reporter, at least four people present during the meeting alleged that the voice was ‘"digitally altered". The piece published by the outlet also accused the upstart media house of high traffic as unfair, and either ‘hyped’ or worse. After the accusation, Ozy Media temporarily shut down and reopened, which Watson called on the 'Today Show' as the organization’s "Lazarus moment". The media house had to face multiple litigations and federal investigations, which as per the lawsuit's notes were both criminal and civil.
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It was on December 22, 2022, when Ozy Media's law firm Ford O’Brien Landy LLP (FOBL) filed a complaint in New York County Supreme Court alleging that the media house’s legal bills have been on the rise each month with no possible end in near future.
“When FOBL has raised Ozy Media’s arrears with Mr Watson or company representatives in telephone calls or video conferences, Mr Watson and/or these representatives have repeatedly urged the firm to be patient until the company’s financial picture improved, at which point, they promised, the company would begin to work down and ultimately extinguish the large outstanding balances,” the 16-page complaint claims. “But instead, Ozy Media’s debt to FOBL, far from being reduced, has mounted steadily each month in 2022 until the present,” it adds.
The lawsuit claims that it defended Ozy Media in the Eastern District of New York’s criminal investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil probe, and a pair of lawsuits in the Northern District of California, reports Law&Crime. According to the complaint, “The firm had multiple responsibilities, including strategy, communications with the government, interviews, and the review and production of more than 27,000 documents, consisting of over 160,000 pages, in response to several government documents subpoenas.”
The FOBL said in its court filing that they were able to successfully defend a lawsuit by one of its investor's claim of ‘fraud’, and they had to partially dismiss their claim. However, they later on voluntarily withdrew their remaining claim altogether, without prejudice in November, this year. Ford O’Brien Landy is demanding the court to approve their lawsuit of $1,255,871.87 for services rendered, including interest.