Wall Street Fraudsters’ Sentences Bake in Risk of Future Crimes

A federal judge sentencing Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson to prison last month for lying to big-name funders about his now-defunct media startup said the “quantum of dishonesty in this case was exceptional.” But what Watson might do next concerned the judge even more.

“I don’t see any reason why, as soon as you were able to, that you wouldn’t simply repeat the behaviors that led us to this point,” Judge Eric Komitee of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York told Watson as he handed down a nearly 10-year prison sentence.

A Southern District ...