It was the summer of 2017 when Thomas Franco met Carlos Watson, a journalist and political commentator who seemed to be building a media empire. Over the next five years, Franco — a partner at the New York private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice — put almost $4 million into Watson’s startup Ozy Media and urged friends to invest too.
But the company was largely an illusion. A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Watson of fraud in July 2024. A judge later ordered him to repay investors almost $37 million, millions of it to Franco.
Hours before Watson was due to report to prison in March of last year, President Trump commuted his nearly 10-year sentence. The clemency grant wiped away the restitution.
In an interview, Franco said he felt victimized all over again. “Clearly the president has constitutional authority to grant clemency, and I certainly don’t question that authority,” Franco told CBS News. “But authority and accountability are two very different things.”
Franco is just one of the many crime victims who may never recover money a court ordered they be repaid. All told, Mr. Trump’s clemency orders have erased at least $119 million in unpaid restitution since January 2025, a CBS News investigation has found.
