Several former employees of Ozy Media say there is no evidence that the millions of dollars the company received through a federal Covid relief program to protect paychecks ever went to save jobs or boost pay.
Ozy, which has come under scrutiny after numerous reports detailing questionable business tactics, applied for two loans through a program called the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, according to the Small Business Administration’s website.
Ozy’s first loan, for $3.75 million, was approved in April 2020, a month after the U.S. government passed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. The company was approved for another $2 million in February 2021.
It is unclear how Ozy used the PPP funds. Ozy Media’s co-founder and CEO, Carlos Watson, did not return multiple emails with specific questions about how the company used the money or who decided how the money would be used. Nor did he answer a question about why Ozy applied for the second loan. The company claimed it had $50 million in revenue in 2020. It laid off several staffers and cut salaries earlier that year.
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