First the FBI knocked on her door.
A month later, they froze her family’s assets and held critical funds she needed to feed her children with hostage.
Days after her daughter’s first birthday, they raided her home rummaging through protected documents.
Years later, Ohio resident Amy Nelson now says the FBI, Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos have all but ruined her life. And Donald Trump may be the only one to make things right.
Following accusations of her husband’s involvement in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme and fraud, Amy’s family have been embroiled in a years-long legal battle against the company.
Now, 45-year-old Amy is determined to hold Amazon and its founder, the world’s second richest man, accountable for the devastating turmoil they’ve allegedly caused her family, placing her trust in President Trump’s administration to seek justice.
‘I never could have imagined any of what has happened to my family happening in America,’ Amy told the DailyMail.com. ‘A lot of people say I should just move on. I survived. But we didn’t survive with our lives intact.’
‘It isn’t just about us, it’s not just about my family,’ she added. ‘It’s the fact that large companies and very powerful men like Jeff Bezos believe that they can use sacred American institutions to destroy families and businesses.’
Amy Nelson, 45, an Ohio resident, is determined to hold Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, accountable after her husband was accused by the company of participating in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme and fraud
Amy and her husband, Carl Nelson, have since been embroiled in a years-long legal battle against the company
Amy told DailyMail.com: ‘I never could have imagined any of what has happened to my family happening in America. ‘It’s the fact that large companies and very powerful men like Jeff Bezos believe that they can use sacred American institutions to destroy families and businesses’
‘It’s not OK, and somebody has to stand up to them.’
In 2020, just weeks into the pandemic, two FBI agents knocked on the Nelsons’ front door and informed the family that Carl was the target of a federal criminal investigation, presenting them with subpoenas for documents.
‘It’s like you’re living your life, and then one day, a bomb goes off,’ Amy said. ‘For us, it was in the form of federal agents at our door. And our life has never been the same.’
Carl, a former Amazon employee, was being accused of participating in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme involving real estate deals for Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in Northern Virginia.
The accusations included claims that Carl and his colleague, Casey Kirschner, conspired with Colorado real estate developer Brian Watson to defraud the tech giant through overpriced land deals, pocketing kickbacks in the process. Both Kirschner and Watson had their guilty pleas vacated.
The pair were initially accused of illegally profiting from more than $500 million in Amazon real estate projects, receiving more than $33 million in kickbacks that were funneled through a network of shell companies.
One month after the FBI’s unexpected visit, the Nelsons’ assets were seized, including nearly every dollar they had. Just a month later, their home was raided.
‘It’s just stunning to me that this can happen. They just destroyed our lives piece by piece,’ Amy told the DailyMail.com.
In 2020, just weeks into the pandemic, two FBI agents knocked on the Nelsons’ front door and informed the family that Carl was the target of a federal criminal investigation. In June, federal agents raided their family home, unexpectedly they say
Carl, a former Amazon employee, was being accused of participating in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme involving real estate deals for Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in Northern Virginia
One month after the FBI’s first unexpected visit, the Nelsons’ assets were seized, including nearly every dollar they had
‘We lost our home. We had to sell our car, we had to liquidate retirement, we had to move a bunch of times to live with family along with four little kids,’ she added.
‘I lost jobs, my husband lost jobs… That’s all it takes.’
After years of litigation battles, including a civil lawsuit filed by the ecommerce conglomerate in every state, vacated pleas from alleged co-conspirators and millions of dollars spent in legal fees, Amy believes the new Trump administration may be key in exposing the what she says are lies perpetuated by Amazon.
‘I fully believe that this administration will look into this,’ she added. ‘It will be a great test as to whether they’ll stick to their words.’
More than five years after the Nelsons’ lives were turned upside-down, Amy has continued to fight her way out of an unrelenting tug-of-war battle with a country she has always loved.
‘The most American thing you can do is fight for America to be what it is meant to be,’ Amy told the DailyMail.com.
‘I want my daughters to know – win or lose – that I tried everything I could to save their father and to tell the truth and not back down to bullies,’ she continued.
‘I don’t think this was about justice. I think it was about doing Jeff Bezos a favor.’
How It Unfolded
Amy told the DailyMail.com: ‘We lost our home. We had to sell our car, we had to liquidate retirement, we had to move a bunch of times to live with family along with four little kids. I lost jobs, my husband lost jobs.’
After years of litigation battles, including a civil lawsuit filed by the ecommerce conglomerate in every state, vacated pleas from alleged co-conspirators and millions of dollars spent in legal fees, Amy believes the new Trump administration may be key in exposing the lies she says were perpetuated by Amazon
Amy says the FBI agent that executed the search warrant took loads of attorney-client privilege information during the raid, documents that Amy said the DOJ knew existed inside the home
In the early morning hours of April 20, 2020, two FBI agents knocked on the Nelsons’ front door. Immediately, Amy knew something was terribly wrong – after all, agents typically don’t show up out of the blue.
‘At a very basic level, Jeff Bezos hired an army of former federal prosecutors to lobby their former colleagues who are still at the Department of Justice,’ Amy explained to DailyMail.com.
‘They accused my husband of a crime called private sector honest services fraud, which is depriving your private sector employer of your “honest services.”‘
Just a month later, federal agents seized the family’s assets, including the funds paid to her husband’s lawyers, after they accessed the firm’s bank accounts and confiscated the money.
‘That is the wildest feeling in the world, when you live in a democracy, and on a random Tuesday, the FBI takes every dollar you have,’ Amy said. ‘They didn’t freeze it, they took it.’
Uninformed about the law, Carl initially didn’t think it was a big deal. He believed, Amy said, that he could call up Amazon and work it out.
As an attorney herself, Amy understood the gravity of the actions being taken against them and believed that federal agents were systematically stripping her family of everything, leaving them powerless to defend themselves against what was to come.
‘I remember my husband’s attorneys asked the federal prosecutors if we could have some of the money back to feed our children, and Samantha Bateman, the prosecutor, said that we could if my husband would plead guilty to Amazon’s allegations,’ Amy said.
‘Allegations that the DOJ never ultimately charged him with.’
On June 5, two days after their daughter’s first birthday, federal agents raided the Nelson family home, unexpectedly they say. The raid came immediately after Carl had a meeting with the DOJ where he asserted that there was nothing he had to hide.
Amy said the FBI agent that executed the search warrant took attorney-client privilege information during the raid, documents that Amy said the DOJ knew existed inside the home.
‘[An agent] took stacks of paper on law firm letterhead that said attorney-client privilege was the analysis of the government’s allegations against my husband,’ Amy said. ‘He took them.’
‘The whole thing just feels like a movie – taking attorney-client privilege information is wrong, it’s misconduct,’ she added. ‘And the FBI agent who did it was eventually kicked off the investigation by the DOJ.’
The agent also apprehended Carl’s laptop, which Amy said was also full of the same information. Yet one of the craziest details of the raid, Amy explained, was that ‘six months after they took the laptop, the DOJ claimed that it was encrypted.’
When Carl was asked about the encryption, he was confused – he had only opened it for the agent at the home and given him the password.
‘Somehow, the laptop was broken in the FBI’s possession,’ Amy said, implying that the FBI had allegedly caused damage to the laptop.
According to Amy, her husband was never given the chance by the DOJ to explain, despite being accused of what he believed were standard business practices, as he had followed ‘the very basic terms of his employment contract.’
‘Part of any criminal action is showing that someone had an indent to defraud, someone had an intent to break the law,’ she said. ‘If my husband is adhering to his employment contract, how could he possibly think he was breaking the law?’
‘It was more important that the government try to back my husband into a corner and plead guilty to a crime they weren’t even willing to charge him with or prove in court than it was for my four little girls to have shelter and food in a pandemic,’ she continued.
Amy said she and her family felt like that the FBI had ‘our hands tied behind our backs’ because ‘Amazon somehow convinced the Department of Justice to take a really stunning stance of seizing all of our bank accounts.’
‘The federal criminal law is not supposed to work that way,’ she added.
Carl sued Amazon, and has already won part of the case. The rest, Amy explained, is paused. The corporate giant is appealing their loss to her husband in their lawsuit, and the rest of her husband’s lawsuit is awaiting the conclusion of the appeal.
In a civil lawsuit filed by Amazon in 2021, the company was urgently seeking ‘immediate relief’ from a ‘significant fraud and kickback scheme.’
Additionally, the lawsuit claimed the defendants posed ‘an imminent risk of destruction of evidence, dissipation of assets, and interference with Amazon business relationships.’
‘These defendants orchestrated a sophisticated scheme to obtain millions of dollars in kickbacks related to Amazon and real estate projects, and there is extensive evidence to prove it,’ Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, said.
‘Given that evidence and the egregious facts we’ve uncovered related to this misconduct, we must act to protect our interests and will move forward with our civil case.’
Amy’s theory of how her family was zeroed in on begins with Amazon’s primary target, Brian Watson, who investigators initially said had been the one to pay her husband’s kickbacks
The REIT – called IPI, or Iron Point – provided the money used to construct buildings that Amazon leased out as data centers and attempted to buy Watson out of the deals, yet he refused
Watson and IPI landed on an agreement – IPI could kick Watson out of the deal if he was ever found guilty or pled guilty to a felony, which he was accused of a short time later
How did Amazon get involved?
After Amazon contacted the DOJ and launched an investigation into her husband, Amy said, the corporate giant sent a letter to every developer that her husband had ever worked with, demanding to know if they were currently working with him as they could be potentially terminated
‘I think Amazon just acted, I think they thought something bad had happened,’ Amy said. ‘I think part of the reason they did that is because they’re so big, and they don’t think anybody can fight back against them.’
‘How is my husband supposed to continue his career when you have the largest player in the industry threatening every developer against working with him?’
Revelations during the investigation
The accusations led to multiple lawsuits from both sides. Among them was a civil suit Amazon filed against Carl. Amy, however, was able to obtain communications between the company’s lawyers and the DOJ
In the email, United States Attorney Jessica Aber, who was recently found dead in her home at 43, praised Patrick Stokes, Amazon’s lawyer, for his 60-page presentation detailing the alleged crime, telling him not to worry as they had hand-selected ‘two of our very best prosecutors for your clients’
The accusations led to multiple lawsuits from both sides. Among them was a civil suit Amazon filed against Carl. Amy, however, was able to obtain communications between the company’s lawyers and the DOJ.
Amy discussed those emails – which she says were made available to her from the lawsuit – to the DailyMail.com, including one that was sent prior to the department investigating a single allegation Amazon set forth.
In the email, United States Attorney Jessica Aber, who was recently found dead in her home at 43, praised Patrick Stokes, Amazon’s lawyer, for his 60-page presentation detailing the alleged crime.
Aber thanked Stokes, a former DOJ employee, calling his presentation ‘a testament to both he and Amazon’s hard work.’ Additionally, Amy said, Aber told Stokes not to worry as they had hand-selected ‘two of our very best prosecutors for your clients.’
‘That was just heartbreakingly crushing to see those words on paper,’ Amy recalled. ‘We didn’t stand a chance.’
Amy later learned that the department had never asked to see her husband’s employment contract, despite the allegations against him being based on a supposed violation of his terms.
When her husband’s lawyer raised the issue during a meeting with the DOJ, the only response they offered about his contract was, ‘We don’t think it allowed the activity happening here.’
At one point, Amy recalled, two federal prosecutors called her husband and his attorneys in the middle of Amazon’s civil case.
Amy said Carl was allegedly warned that if he didn’t stop defending himself in the case, ‘he would get what he deserved’ and that he was ‘fighting a two front war that he couldn’t win,’ believing the threat referred to both Amazon and the DOJ.
‘The DOJ is pretty ruthless in their tactics and in their mannerisms, and you fear if you fight them, that they’ll do something to you,’ she said.
According to Amy, the two prosecutors told her husband that they would find a way to charge him – whether it be with perjury or obstruction of justice – even if they couldn’t charge him with anything else related to the alleged scheme.
‘In what world are federal prosecutors threatening my husband from defending himself in a civil lawsuit like that?’
Alleged co-conspirators off the hook
What troubled Amy more than anything, however, came at the conclusion of the DOJ investigation four years later when federal prosecutors vacated pleas of co-conspirators Kyle Ramstetter and Christian Kirschner, citing in their motion that pursuing their cases ‘isn’t in the best interest of justice’
Amazon claims that in March of 2023, Kirschner and Ramstetter plead guilty to conspiring with others, including Carl, to commit wire fraud through a bribery and kickback scheme which aimed to drive away real estate development deals for the company’s data centers. Those guilty pleas were later vacated
According to Amy, Carl’s contract with Amazon stated that he was authorized to start a new company while he worked under their wing, allowing him to seek investment from anyone who was not an investor at the powerful company
What troubled Amy more than anything, however, came at the conclusion of the DOJ investigation four years later.
Despite Amazon’s aggressive pursuit of both civil and criminal cases, the tide began to turn in 2024 when federal prosecutors vacated pleas of co-conspirators Kyle Ramstetter and Christian Kirschner, citing in their motion that pursuing their cases ‘isn’t in the best interest of justice,’ according to Bloomberg Law.
Amazon claims that in March of 2023, Kirschner and Ramstetter plead guilty to conspiring with others, including Carl, to commit wire fraud through a bribery and kickback scheme which aimed to drive away real estate development deals for the company’s data centers.
In Kirschner’s eventually vacated guilty plea, Amazon said in legal docs, Kirschner admitted that his brother Casey, an employee of Amazon, asked that his supervisor Carl be cut into the alleged scheme.
According to Amy, Carl’s contract with Amazon stated that he was authorized to start a new company while he worked under their wing, allowing him to seek investment from anyone who was not an investor at the powerful company.
In February 2018, Amy explained, her husband’s colleague, Casey Kirschner, approached Carl and said: ‘My brother thinks we should set up our own development company since we have the expertise. My brother, Christian, wants to invest with us and will provide the seed capital.’
According to Amy, as Amazon itself doesn’t sell real estate development, the act would not be a direct competition to the company nor a violation of Carl’s employment contract, therefore, allows him to participate.
Amy said that her husband had never taken the money, and instead ‘admitted’ to building a business and seeking investment, as his employment contract allowed.
After spending millions to fight the accusations, a federal judge ruled that Carl had never violated his terms, leaving Amy perplexed as to why the men were pleading guilty to helping him do something that wasn’t true.
‘If there was ANY crime here, I can assure you that the DOJ would not have vacated four pleas and ended their investigation – especially after promising Amazon’s lawyers their ‘best prosecutors’ and telling them not to worry,’ she said.
Despite the turn of events, Amazon still plans to continue its civil lawsuit against Carl.
‘These defendants orchestrated a sophisticated scheme to obtain millions of dollars in kickbacks related to Amazon real estate projects and there is extensive evidence to prove it,’ Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told the DailyMail.com in January, defending the company’s efforts to recoup damages and pursue justice.
‘Given that evidence and the egregious facts we’ve uncovered related to this misconduct, we must act to protect our interests and will move forward with our civil case.’
Alex Little, one of Carl’s attorneys, accused Amazon of using the DOJ as ‘a tool’ to further its own interests. ‘This effort has failed,’ he said, pointing to the vacated guilty pleas as what he considers to be evidence of overreach.
Judge Rossie Alston Jr., who presided over Amazon’s civil case, dismissed most of the company’s claims in 2024, citing ‘fundamental’ flaws in their arguments.
Alston ruled that Amazon could not prove financial harm from the real estate deals, noting that the company’s own contract authorized the disputed actions.
Additionally, Alston ruled when granting a summary judgement that Amazon’s employment contract authorized Carl to partake in what the company claimed was a crime.
The FBI was unable to confirm or deny the existence of the investigation when the DailyMail.com asked for comment, as per longstanding Department of Justice policy.
The next steps
The Nelson family are currently seeking to obtain all the information they can, including a number of documents sealed by the DOJ during the course of the investigation
As for the seized assets, the Nelsons’ were able to recover 85 percent of the money, though the government still retains around $300,000 of what was taken. The family is determined to take any necessary steps to reclaim the rest
The Nelson family are currently seeking to obtain all the information they can, including a number of documents sealed by the DOJ during the course of the investigation.
Amy said the DOJ promised they would make the sealed documents available to the public on April 1, 2024, allowing her to finally see what Amazon disclosed to the DOJ in broader terms, or what they swore under oath.
When the date came around, however, the DOJ filed a motion in court, claiming that the Nelsons’ never had the right to access the documents, and sought to have them sealed permanently.
‘If there’s ever anything that would tell you something very bad happened, it’s the government fighting like hell to keep those documents sealed that they had promised would be available,’ Amy told the DailyMail.com.
They are still fighting to get the documents unsealed.
As for the seized assets, the Nelsons’ were able to recover 85 percent of the money, though the government still retains around $300,000 of what was taken. The family is determined to take any necessary steps to reclaim the rest.
‘If they’ve closed out the investigation and did not feel as though a crime was committed, why wouldn’t they give us that money back?’ she said.
Help from the Trump administration
Amy told DailyMail.com: ‘I was a lifelong Democrat, but I am hopeful that the Trump administration will take a different position with its power with respect to the DOJ and the FBI. They believe that there’s a mandate to shine a light on corruption at the FBI and the DOJ and so I fully believe that this administration will look into this’
Amy is also looking to seek assistance from Trump’s administration to recover the $300,000 that remains in the government’s possession
The Nelsons’ have been in touch with the new administrations of both President Donald Trump and the DOJ, and Amy believes there should be an investigation into the events that transpired over the last few years.
‘I was a lifelong Democrat, but I am hopeful that the Trump administration will take a different position with its power with respect to the DOJ and the FBI,’ Amy told the DailyMail.com.
‘We now have someone running the FBI who was targeted by the FBI, and you have a president that was targeted by the DOJ,’ she added.
‘They believe that there’s a mandate to shine a light on corruption at the FBI and the DOJ and so I fully believe that this administration will look into this.’
Instead of revenge, Amy explained, she wants accountability and justice.
‘If not, we should stop pretending we live in a constitutional republic and admit that we live in an oligarchy,’ she said.
Amy is also looking to seek assistance from Trump’s administration to recover the $300,000 that remains in the government’s possession.
‘We’ll be reaching out to the new administration to right that wrong as well,’ Amy said. ‘They can never give us our house back. The house we sold in Seattle is worth over double of what we sold it for – that could have been my children’s college fund.’
Where the Nelson family is today
Initially, the family-of-six went to stay with Amy’s parents in their townhouse before moving into their own home where they are focused on ‘giving our girls a childhood’ following the end of the investigation
Amy is still carrying anger toward Amazon for what she says is their continuing refusal of any communication with her family. The silence, she says, has left her questioning why they can’t get sit down in a room together and resolve the matter as a part of her believes they may have been misled by their lawyers
Carl currently works as a real estate developer while Amy has launched The Riveter, a for-profit company focused on supporting women in the workplace. Providing office and work space, The Riveter involves engaging in political advocacy, hosting events and publishing content
Amy finds herself constantly wondering what she could have accomplished in the last five years if this never had happened and also expressed sadness for believing that she is ‘not the mother I want to be’ following the years-long battle
Unable to sustain their financial obligations during the course of the investigation, the Nelsons’ moved multiple times, ultimately settling in Columbus, Ohio.
‘My husband and I are very resilient people with a lot of grit,’ Amy told the DailyMail.com.
‘We’re both entrepreneurs and so we have hustled and continued to make money – but at the same time, we had to work endless hours proving his innocence. Now, we live a completely different life.’
Initially, the family-of-six went to stay with Amy’s parents in their townhouse before moving into their own home where they are focused on ‘giving our girls a childhood.’
‘I am proud of us,’ Amy said. ‘I think we’re doing a good job of it, but it’s frustrating, it’s wrong, it’s reshaped our lives.’
Amy finds herself constantly wondering what she could have accomplished in the last five years if this never had happened.
‘What could I have built in five years? How much innovation have they taken from us?’ she said.
Carl currently works as a real estate developer while Amy has launched The Riveter, a for-profit company focused on supporting women in the workplace. Providing office and work space, The Riveter involves engaging in political advocacy, hosting events and publishing content.
Despite the recent successes, Amy is still carrying anger toward Amazon for what she says is a continuing refusal of any communication with her family. The silence, she says, has left her questioning why they can’t get sit down in a room together and resolve the matter.
Yet the ghost of Amazon continues to haunt their lives.
‘It’s also a terrifying statement about what we believe in America,’ she added.
‘People look at these institutions like they should have this extreme power, but they weren’t built to have that power, and they certainly weren’t built to become the agents of billionaires.’
