@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

This is an American scandal - with @jeffbezos and @amazon CEO @ajassy at the center of a horrifying scheme. Here is a small part of our story: Amazon using civil forfeiture to leave my babies penniless and then suing my husband in civil court knowing he had no money. It gets worse. /1

@FreeRangeLawyer - Rob Johnson

Tomorrow, I'm flying to Los Angeles for oral argument in what may be the most important Fourth Amendment case pending in the United States today. The basic facts: The FBI broke open and searched hundreds of safe deposit boxes without any reason to think the boxholders did anything wrong. U.S. Private Vaults, a business in Beverly Hills, offered a private and secure place where people could store their most valued, sensitive possessions. In March 2021, the FBI raided USPV, broke open every single box in the vault, and looked through all the contents. The FBI ran all cash in the vault by drug dogs, opened envelopes and photographed the contents, and ultimately sent everything worth over $5,000 to asset forfeiture---initiating proceedings to keep that property forever.

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

Amazon asked DOJ to seize my husband’s $$. DOJ obliged. When that was done and Amazon knew my husband had no money in any bank account - and 4 daughters under the age of 6 - Amazon sued my husband in the same district where they were working with prosecutors. /2

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

Prosecutors then told my husband’s lawyers that if my husband would plead guilty to Amazon’s allegations, prosecutors would give my husband back some of his money so he could feed his little girls. Otherwise, good luck. I hope the babies don’t starve. This was May 2020. /3

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

Also: DOJ seized the money my husband had paid lawyers after learning he was the target of a federal investigation. They literally went into the law firm’s client trust account and yanked the money. It was scorched earth. My husband was NEVER charged with any crime. /4

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

The DOJ also seized my father’s entire bank account. My husband and I helped my 70 year old dad with health expenses. He had a life saving kidney transplant in April 2020. He couldn’t play for his anti rejection meds, /5

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

DOJ also seized my bank accounts. I guess to make sure we had no way to survive? I was the CEO of a start up. They took it all. And we couldn’t even fight to get it back until February 2022. 2 years later. And we got it back. /6

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

But for 2 years, we had to support 4 babies & pay lawyers to fight Amazon’s civil lawsuit, the civil forfeiture and the government investigation Amazon started. We sold our home, car, liquidated retirement, borrowed money and raised money. This was our home in Seattle. /7

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

We drove away from Seattle with 4 girls and 5 bags. We had to leave our dog - our heart - with a friend for a year. We eventually made our way to Ohio to live with my family. We got the dog, Utah, back. /8

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

At one point, DOJ subpoenaed our former nanny. I think they did it to try to show some tax fraud - but we paid our nanny over the table with employment taxes. If we had’t DOJ would have likely threatened to charge me with a crime to exert pressure on my husband to plead guilty. So the nanny had to hire lawyers. But here’s the thing. /9

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

In Amazon’s civil lawsuit - because we could pay to fight, because we sold everything and got the seized money back and I moved away from my little girls to take a job to pay lawyers - a federal judge finally ruled my husband didn’t even break his Amazon employment contract. The DOJ seized our money and was happy to let my children starve - so were @JeffBezos and @ajassy - over conduct a judge said conformed to Amazon’s employment terms. How is this America? /9

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

My dad never got his money back. He couldn’t pay for lawyers and it was just $13,000 - all the money he had in the world. My parents aren’t wealthy. My mom was a retired teacher. We had to promise not to sue DOJ and give up 15% of the seized money to get anything back. We needed it to survive so we did. /10

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

In all, DOJ seized $7 million from families, investors, and companies based on Amazon’s false allegations. In March 2024, the affidavits DOJ used to seize the money will be unsealed. And that’s a massively important day. Here is why. /11

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

I’ve seen statements by DOJ that Amazon said it’s employees weren’t “authorized” to do business with entities doing biz with Amazon. Full ban. But a federal judge said that is “explicitly contrary” to the plain terms of Amazon’s contract & Amazon DID allow that, Now, if we hadn’t fought - would my husband be charged with federal crimes for adhering to his contract? I think so. I do. /12

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

But someone at Amazon lied to DOJ. And it will be in the affidavits. And it’s a federal crime to lie to law enforcement: 18 USC 1001. Big deal. And so I have to believe DOJ is digging into this now and will hold the actors at Amazon accountable who lied. Otherwise they’re broadcasting to all companies, hey, go ahead and lie to us to go after business partners, etc. We are here for it. It’s pretty darn black and white. /13

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

Amazon has broadcast in public filings that 4 people really ran the show internally: AWS exec Chris Vonderhaar, now at Google Cloud. Global head of ethics Yousri Omar. AWS lawyer Dennis Wallace. North American ethics head Matt Doden. So stay tuned. /14

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

Now, Amazon has a disturbing path of using DOJ as a “partner” to go after sellers, seller consultants, employees and landlords. Seems not okay. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/21/amazon-federal-law-enforcement-525794. /15

How one of America’s largest employers leans on federal law enforcement Amazon has increasingly tipped off the Justice Department and FBI to investigate its own employees and the sellers using its platform, according to a POLITICO analysis.  politico.com

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

And Amazon IS a real partner to the intelligence community. In 2013, Amazon won a massive CIA contract. Now they store data for FBI, DOD, NSA, etc. Pretty terrifying. /16 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/

The Details About the CIA's Deal With Amazon A $600 million computing cloud built by an outside company is a "radical departure" for the risk-averse intelligence community.  theatlantic.com

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

Is their independence? I don’t know. I don’t know anything about this country anymore. Dozens of lawyers put my family in a vice and squeezed us, hoping we would die. So I’m lost. But please keep watching. Please keep sharing. Thank you. /17 https://reason.com/2022/02/18/fbi-seized-almost-1-million-from-amy-sterner-carl-nelson-never-charged-them-with-a-crime/

The FBI Seized Almost $1 Million From This Family—and Never Charged Them With a Crime "It's completely changed my belief in fairness," says Amy Sterner Nelson. reason.com

@Amy_K_Nelson - Amy Nelson

And, also: Abolish civil forfeiture. It’s not right.