Amy Nelson’s Amazon Lawsuit: FBI Raid and Fourth Circuit Reversal

Amy Nelson is the wife of Carl Nelson, a former Amazon Web Services real estate manager accused by Amazon of taking millions in kickbacks on Northern Virginia data center land deals. The Amy Nelson Amazon lawsuit began in 2020 with an FBI raid on the family’s Seattle home and the seizure of nearly $900,000 from their bank accounts. Carl Nelson has never been criminally charged. A federal judge threw out most of Amazon’s civil claims in 2023, but in September 2025 the Fourth Circuit reversed that ruling and sent the case back toward trial.

What Amazon Accused Carl Nelson Of

Amazon spent $415 million on nine data center sites in Loudoun and Prince William Counties, Virginia.¹ Carl Nelson and fellow AWS transaction manager Casey Kirschner were the employees selecting developers, running due diligence, and negotiating those contracts.²

Amazon alleged the two men steered deals to Northstar Commercial Partners, a Colorado firm run by Brian Watson, in return for concealed payments. According to the complaint, Northstar paid more than $5 million in “referral fees” to a trust set up by attorney Rodney Atherton, calculated as a percentage of what Northstar earned on Amazon leases, with additional money routed through a network of shell entities. Amazon says Nelson and Kirschner collected at least $7 million in kickbacks before a whistleblower reported the arrangement in December 2019.²¹

Carl Nelson has denied wrongdoing. His defense argues that the payments came from outside real estate work that was permitted under his Amazon employment contract, and that his commercial real estate activities were known to colleagues.³

The FBI Raid and the Frozen Accounts

In April 2020, FBI agents searched the Nelsons’ home in West Seattle and froze the family’s bank accounts.³ On May 22, 2020, the government formally seized more than $892,000 from six accounts belonging to Amy and Carl Nelson, alleging the funds were proceeds of honest-services wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, or unlawful monetary transactions.⁴

The accounts stayed frozen for 22 months. In February 2022, the government settled the civil forfeiture case. The FBI returned $525,000 to the Nelsons; the family forfeited about $109,000; the rest was consumed by legal fees. The settlement was not an admission of guilt.³⁵

The Civil Lawsuit and the 2023 Dismissal

Amazon sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, bringing claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act along with state-law counts for fraud, breach of contract, tortious interference, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment, conversion, and detinue. The company sought roughly $16 to $18 million.⁶⁷

On April 6, 2023, U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. granted summary judgment for the defendants on seven of the eight claims. He ruled that Amazon had failed to produce sufficient evidence of financial harm, calling the absence of proof a “glaring omission” that “may have been a conscious one” because the land appeared worth more than what Amazon paid. Only a civil conspiracy claim and a tortious interference claim against Watson and his companies survived.⁶⁸

Amy Nelson said of the ruling: “It feels good, after three years of these really sensational allegations, that the very first time Amazon had to prove a single thing, the judge said, you don’t even get to go to trial.”⁹

The Criminal Case Ended Without Charges

A parallel federal criminal investigation had produced guilty pleas from two peripheral figures: Christian Kirschner, Casey Kirschner’s brother and trustee of the Villanova Trust, and Kyle Ramstetter, a former Northstar executive.¹⁰

On January 10, 2024, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges against both men and vacate their guilty pleas, saying continued prosecution was “not in the best interests of justice.” The government noted the two had “comparatively minimal involvement” and that it had declined to bring charges against other alleged co-conspirators, including Carl Nelson.¹⁰ No criminal charges were ever filed against Carl Nelson, Casey Kirschner, or Brian Watson in the Amazon matter.

The Fourth Circuit Reversal in September 2025

Amazon appealed. On September 16, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the district court in a published decision, reviving the RICO, fraud, unjust enrichment, conversion, and civil conspiracy claims and remanding for further proceedings.²¹¹

The appeals court found that Judge Alston had taken too narrow a view of a RICO enterprise and that a reasonable jury could conclude the defendants operated as a continuing unit with a shared purpose. On the harm question that had sunk Amazon’s case below, the panel held that Amazon did not need to prove the exact market value of the properties, only that it paid more than it would have absent the alleged fraud, and that the company’s expert evidence was enough to create a genuine dispute for a jury.² The decision also reopened a civil conspiracy claim against attorney Rodney Atherton.¹¹

The Cost to Amy Nelson and Her Family

Before the raid, Amy Nelson had her own career. A former corporate litigator who spent a decade practicing financial services law in London and New York, she founded The Riveter in 2017, a co-working space and community platform for women that grew to ten locations across six states and raised more than $30 million in venture funding by early 2020.¹²¹³

The FBI’s April 2020 raid landed in the same weeks as the pandemic. The Riveter closed its physical locations and pivoted to digital, eventually terminating roughly 90 years’ worth of lease obligations.¹³⁹

She has kept up a steady public campaign through social media and interviews, arguing that Amazon has sought to unlawfully enforce its employment agreements against her husband and improperly shaped the criminal investigation. She has since launched a new venture, Cotton Candy and Dreams, focused on curated family experiences.¹⁴

Where the Case Stands Now

The Fourth Circuit’s reversal changed the trajectory of the litigation. The criminal investigation is over with no charges against Carl Nelson, but the revived civil claims, including RICO, are headed back to the Eastern District of Virginia. Nelson’s defense team has said it plans to push the case to trial.¹¹ Carl Nelson continues to deny wrongdoing and maintains his outside real estate work was contractually permitted. Amazon has said it must act to “protect our interests” given what it calls the “egregious facts” of the case.¹⁴

1
Data Center Dynamics. Amazon Sues Developer Alleged Racketeering and Fraud Over Virginia Data Center Land
2
FindLaw. Amazon.com Inc. v. WDC Holdings LLC
3
The Seattle Times. After 3 Years, Seattle’s Amy Nelson Still Fighting Amazon and DOJ
4
GeekWire. Riveter CEO, Husband Dispute FBI’s Seizure of Bank Accounts in AWS Kickback Investigation
5
Reason. FBI Seized Almost $1 Million From Amy Sterner Nelson, Carl Nelson, Never Charged Them With a Crime
6
Burr & Forman. Burr Forman Successfully Represents Former Amazon Employee in Defense of Claims Alleging a Kickback Conspiracy
7
The Well News. Appeals Court Allows Amazon to Sue Business Associates Accused of Kickbacks
8
Data Center Dynamics. Judge Dismisses Most Claims in Amazon Lawsuit Against Former AWS Real Estate Managers
9
GeekWire. Judge Tosses All But One Claim in Amazon’s Suit Against Former AWS Real Estate Managers
10
Bloomberg Law. Prosecutors Move to Toss Criminal Fraud Charges in Amazon Case
11
The Denver Post. Amazon Fraud Case Brian Watson Appeal Denver
12
Forbes. Riveter Amy Nelson
13
Kara Goldin Podcast. Amy Nelson
14
Economic Times. Amazon Tried to Destroy My Family Says Ohio Woman