Seattle's tech elite embroiled in AWS real estate investigation, lawsuit
Lawyers for former Amazon executive Carl Nelsonare arguing that the federal government is unjustly holding hundreds of thousands of dollars of the Seattle couple’s cash related to an investigation into fraud involving Amazon’s real estate deals to expand its AWS cloud services.
The investigation stems from allegations that Nelson, who was an Amazon real estate transaction manager until 2019, and Casey Kirschner, an Amazon co-worker, engaged in what Amazon’s lawyers call “a massive fraud and kickback scheme,” reaping illegal profits on more than $500 million in Amazon development projects.
Aside from the investigation by the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice, Amazon has filed a lawsuit against Nelson, Kirschner and various companies linked to Amazon real estate deals.
Additionally, the Nelsons have sued Amazon in Washington state, demanding that any legal proceedings against Carl Nelson take place in Washington, not Virginia. And there is also litigation concerning the government's seizure of assets belonging to Carl and Amy Nelson as part of its investigation. Amy Nelson, Carl's wife, is the founder and CEO of The Riveter.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2021/02/24/seattle-tech-elite-embroiled-in-aws-investigation.html