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I wonder if the company was internally on the brink of collapse for a long time, but could perpetually keep faking it as long as they could keep funding coming

I wonder if the company was internally on the brink of collapse for a long time, but could perpetually keep faking it as long as they could keep funding coming in? And then the NYTimes popped the veneer and forced an immediate collapse? Or is that totally off base.

d3nj4l 5y ago
I think the seriousness of their fraud is what prompted the collapse. It’s one thing to cook viewership numbers and another to impersonate a YouTube exec to defraud Goldman Sachs of $40mn. I guess they got so used to fraud they didn’t realise they’d crossed a line, and the resulting scrutiny finally did them in.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > It’s one thing to cook viewership numbers and another to impersonate a YouTube exec to defraud Goldman Sachs of $40mn And it's an entirely separate thing for the CEO to defend said fraud as a mental health oopsie, and then the chairman of the Board to defend the CEO for running a forgiving ship. Clown car, front to back. Every one of the people involved should be investigated, in their activities pertaining to Ozy Media as well as everything else they're supposedly involved with and/or overseeing.
janmo 5y ago
OZY raised $35M in 2019, totalling $70M in total funding at that point. In April 2020 the total raised amount grew to $83M. The company supposedly made $50M of revenue in 2020 and claimed to be profitable. So from here, why did they try to raise more? Probably because the revenues and profit were not real. In February 2021 the company tried to defraud Goldman Sachs of $40M. I've read from another source that OZY was able to raise even more money 2 months after having failed to defraud Goldman Sachs. The total amount of money raised could thus be in the 100 millions.
rchaud 5y ago
According to this story [0], a former employee was advised by a doctor to take time off after a panic attack. Samir Rao (the guy whose 'mental health crisis' made him impersonate an executive), called up the hospital saying he was the HR Director, demanding to look at the employee's medical records. You can't bounce back from something like that. [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/30/media/ozy-work-culture/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/30/media/ozy-work-culture/in...

d3nj4l 5y ago

I think the seriousness of their fraud is what prompted the collapse. It’s one thing to cook viewership numbers and another to impersonate a YouTube exec to defraud Goldman Sachs of $40mn. I guess they got so used to fraud they didn’t realise they’d crossed a line, and the resulting scrutiny finally did them in.

JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> It’s one thing to cook viewership numbers and another to impersonate a YouTube exec to defraud Goldman Sachs of $40mn And it's an entirely separate thing for the CEO to defend said fraud as a mental health oopsie, and then the chairman of the Board to defend the CEO for running a forgiving ship. Clown car, front to back. Every one of the people involved should be investigated, in their activities pertaining to Ozy Media as well as everything else they're supposedly involved with and/or overseeing.

janmo 5y ago

OZY raised $35M in 2019, totalling $70M in total funding at that point. In April 2020 the total raised amount grew to $83M. The company supposedly made $50M of revenue in 2020 and claimed to be profitable. So from here, why did they try to raise more? Probably because the revenues and profit were not real. In February 2021 the company tried to defraud Goldman Sachs of $40M. I've read from another source that OZY was able to raise even more money 2 months after having failed to defraud Goldman Sachs. The total amount of money raised could thus be in the 100 millions.

rchaud 5y ago

According to this story [0], a former employee was advised by a doctor to take time off after a panic attack. Samir Rao (the guy whose 'mental health crisis' made him impersonate an executive), called up the hospital saying he was the HR Director, demanding to look at the employee's medical records. You can't bounce back from something like that. [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/30/media/ozy-work-culture/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/30/media/ozy-work-culture/in...