but Jeff Bezos and his lawyers have done to my family for the past four years
should be on the front page of every newspaper in America
but it's not I could probably guess why
million of you have shown up in the past day and are asking what happened
so I'll try to give you a quick summary
my husband Carl worked at Amazon Web Services
a subsidiary of Amazon
from 2012 to 2019
he had Amazon's original employment agreement
which allowed him to do all sorts of things while he worked at Amazon
Jeff Bezos is like a valid libertarian
and wants people to be able to make money in a bunch of different ways
so he gave my husband the contractual right while he worked at Amazon
to start a company and seek investors
as long as they weren't investors in Amazon
and to work with businesses who were doing business with Amazon
so long as my husband's arrangement with those businesses wasn't substantially
the same as Amazon's arrangement
you might think this is a weird employment contract
my husband didn't write it
Jeff Bezos and his lawyers did
and this is not just my random interpretation of the contract
this is the interpretation of federal courts in America
my husband worked in real estate for Amazon
he helped source land for Amazon to buy to build data centers on
or helped Amazon work with real estate developers
who built shell buildings that Amazon would turn into data centers
and lease
Around 2018 my husband decided that he was gonna get ready to leave Amazon
and he wanted to start his own real estate development company
not at all competitive to Amazon at all
because Amazon doesn't sell real estate development
so that's not a competitive activity
names the company all core
hires a lawyer
company gets incorporated
my husband gets his first investor
that investor had been involved with Amazon real estate transactions how
that investor had worked with a real estate developer
who built shell buildings at Amazon
later leased for data centers
the investor earned money from the developer
wasn't Amazon's money
but would have been fine if it was Amazon's money
and after he earned that money
my husband learns he wanted to invest my husband's new company
to compete with the real estate developer he'd been working with before
great my husband leaves Amazon
this company is called ALC
Alcor starts working with it
pitches deals to Amazon
Amazon knows about the company
and in fact Amazon works with a ton of former employees
who've gone into real estate development
because they know how Amazon works on the inside
it's efficient
it's more helpful
it saves Amazon time and money
my husband ends up working with two developers to resound land for data centers
my husband hopes that they're gonna build data centers on this land
at least into Amazon
but Amazon instead decides to buy the land
keeps the land
building data centers has the land today
my husband's company generates significant revenue
that's great my husband's building his own real estate development company
which was his dream
I'm so proud of him
but then on April 2nd, 2020
the FBI knocked on our door two weeks into the pandemic
they told my husband he was the target of a federal criminal investigation
in the Eastern District of Virginia
we live in Seattle
so this is across the country
my husband had no idea what they were talking about
he had his lawyer call Amazon and say hey
you know I'd like to speak to you
Amazon refused to talk to him
unless he was planning to plead guilty to a federal crime
husband wasn't charged with any crime
federal prosecutors won't give my husband details
we're in the dark
it's terrifying
then in may of 2020
the federal government
using civil forfeiture
seized every dollar in our bank accounts
every dollar all of it
my husband's businesses are personal accounts in mine
because my husband and I shared money
they also seized the money my husband had paid to lawyers
in civil forfeiture
you can take money from someone in America without charging them with a crime
let alone proving it just on the suspicion it's a crime
my husband is like
what the hell
I have this employment contract that allowed me to do X
y and Z like I'm doing real estate
what is the crime here
Amazon won't talk
to him federal prosecutors won't talk to him
we have no money
we have four little girls
my youngest wasn't even a year old and my oldest was five
two weeks after the government seized our money
there was a banging on our door at 6:00am
there was four FBI agents with guns
we thought they were there to arrest my husband
that they were there to execute a search warrant
for months federal prosecutors threatened to show up and arrest my husband
some pre dawn warning for four little girls
that see him dragged out of the house
unless my husband would plead guilty to a crime
and here is what we eventually Learned he was being accused of
Amazon had gone to the DOJ
and said that my husband was essential figure in massive kickback scheme
of millions of dollars
and had defrauded Amazon
they said that the money the investor invested in my husband's company
was a kickback
and a legal kickback
saying that my husband had violated his employment duties to Amazon
and accepted a kickback
then they said these two real estate deals my husband did after he left Amazon
were also a kickback
like somehow my husband
when he didn't work at Amazon
was forcing Amazon into these real estate deals
which made no sense
mind you Amazon kept all of the real estate it was saying was a crime
was building data centers on all of this real estate
and eventually making billions of dollars off of this real estate
selling cloud computing
so they wanted the land
kept all the real estate
that wasn't the problem
but they said my husband had committed this massive crime
my husband's like
I did nothing
please look at my employment contract
we then learn that Amazon had never given the DOJ
my husband's employment contract
so what was their probable cause for a crime
if my husband was allowed to do this under employment contract
they're gonna say it's a crime
and the DOJ was just like ah
we don't think this activity was allowed under the employment contract
for four years
that was as much as I would say
we don't think this activity was allowed
is that because Amazon said it wasn't
obviously but you take Amazons contractual interpretation of their contract
and say it's a federal crime
we spent four years and $3.6 million proving my husband's innocence
Amazon sued my husband in civil court after he wouldn't plead guilty to a crime
my husband was never charged with any crime ever in civil court
a federal judge eventually held that my husband had
acted on his contractional rights
to do what Amazon said was a crime
and also tossed out Amazon's racketeering allegations
that is that my husband was like part of a Mafia racketeering ring
unjust enrichment fraud
all of it judge tosses it out
leaves in like
one small state law claim that we're still fighting with Amazon about
but nothing to do with a crime
and the DOJ eventually then says
well actually
we have these four alleged co conspirators of your husband
that have pled guilty to crimes
and we're like what
but then the DOJ says
but we're gonna dismiss two of those guilty pleas
and then we're going to take the extraordinary
unprecedented step in American history
of vacating two federal criminal plea agreements
because they're not in the interest of justice
because no crime happened
so the department of justice ran a four year investigation
raids in multiple states accusing all these people of federal crimes
destroying businesses because Amazon said a crime happened
and eventually was like JK
never mind no crime happened
what about the millions of dollars we spent proving my husband's innocence
in America apparently if you are Jeff Bezos
you can go and tell the FBI that a former employees of yours committed a crime
and they're just gonna unleash hell on that guy and hope
I hope you can survive it
I guess that was like the
the end of it
we did get the money back for the DOJ
we had to promise not to sue the DOJ in order to get the money back
but you know the issue now
is that no one at Amazon has been held accountable for what they did
we can prove that Amazon's lawyers lied to department of justice
about my husband's employment duties
because we found an unsealed search warrant
affidavit in court
me looking through court records in Amazon
said my husband wasn't authorized
to do any of the real estate development work he did
just like because Jeff Bezos said he wasn't authorized
because it's funny
cause Jeff Bezos gave him a contract saying he was explicitly authorized
there's so much more to this story
but it has been truly horrifying
and I think more than anything
you know aside from the fact that we lost our home
we lost businesses
we lost our friends
we lost the city we lived in
so we had to move and live with family
you know I don't wanna live in an America
where a billionaire
can really do what Jeff Bezos lawyers did to try to put my husband in prison
Amazon hired former federal prosecutors to lobby their former colleagues
to try to put my husband in prison
and no one has been held accountable
and at this point that's really what I'm seeking and looking for
you may tell me I'm shady
my husband did something wrong
I don't even know what wrong means
people like there are laws
there are contracts
my husband broke no law
my husband didn't break his Amazon contract
and I don't think in America
employers should try to put employees in prison over employment contacts
especially when they don't break them
so that's the eight minute summary of what's happened to my family
Amazon has refused to speak to my husband ever
and there's some pretty scandalous stuff I haven't shared with you here that
but eventually will
including the words of one of the men who pled guilty to a federal crime
and what he has to say about it after the DOJ vacated his plea
because it was pretty interesting what he said when he called me
and if you've watched till the end
that's the part that's gonna stick with you
when he called me
but go ahead and look it up
see how often the DOJ vacates plea agreements is not in the interest of justice
it doesn't happen
New York Times article for a few years ago
when General Michael Flynn's plea was vacated
and I'm not saying anything about Flynn
federal prosecutors can think of a single other instance in American history
when the department of justice voluntarily vacated a plea
and here we have four
I hope that made sense
you have any questions
go ahead and comment
please don't leave bullying comments
I'm not gonna respond to them
my mental health will not let me do it anymore
but yeah
that's what happened to my family
so there's a summary