Amazon has settled its civil claims against two former AWS real estate managers it accused of taking kickbacks on Northern Virginia data center deals. The company told a federal court on
Exterior view of Amazon's Pathfinder Plaza data center facility in Sterling, Northern Virginia. October 20 that it had reached the agreement with Carl Nelson and Casey Kirschner, less than two weeks before trial, GeekWire reported.
Nelson and Kirschner steered Amazon AWS data center site selection. Amazon hired the Denver developer Brian Watson and his firm Northstar Commercial Partners for nine data center development projects in Northern Virginia between 2018 and 2020. Amazon alleges Northstar won that business by paying kickbacks to Nelson and Kirschner, a claim Watson denies. The claims against Watson and Northstar remain, and their trial is set for November 2 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. A Colorado lawyer, Rodney Atherton, who set up companies for the two men, settled alongside them.
Terms of the settlement are confidential, including whether any money was paid. In a joint statement, Nelson and Kirschner did not call the payments kickbacks or say they were illegal, according to The Next Web. "They regret their actions, apologize for failing to meet Amazon's high ethical standards, and are glad this matter has been resolved," the statement said.
Amazon sued in 2020, alleging the managers took kickbacks on Northern Virginia property deals in return for steering work to developers. Nelson was investigated by the FBI but never charged, GeekWire reported. A federal judge dismissed most of the claims in 2023. In September 2025, a federal appeals court revived several of them, including racketeering and fraud, and returned the case to the trial court, according to the Fourth Circuit's opinion. That opinion states that Amazon alleged at least $7,025,486 in kickbacks reached Nelson, Kirschner and Kirschner's brother Christian.
In a filing on the Friday before the settlement, Watson and Northstar asked the judge to order Amazon to hand over the settlement agreement so they could see its terms, GeekWire reported. In January 2024, federal prosecutors moved to vacate the guilty pleas of Christian Kirschner and former Northstar account manager Kyle Ramstetter, saying continued prosecution was not in the best interests of justice.
Baxtel tracks 637 data center facilities in Northern Virginia, a market led by Amazon AWS with 169 sites. CloudHQ's LC4 is the largest at 180 MW, and 103 facilities in the market are under construction.
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