Colorado-Based Data Center Developer Sues Amazon, AWS, Jeff Bezos, and Others For More than $8 billion, Alleging Anti-Competitive Conspiracy and Racketeering

Denver, Colorado – Colorado-based data center owner and developer Brian Watson and his company, Northstar Commercial Partners, are taking Amazon and its top leadership to federal court (Case No. 1:24-cv-03559) alleging anticompetitive conduct in an effort to restrain trade and monopolize the market using a variety of tactics including witness tampering, bribery, and racketeering.  The complaint alleges Amazon wielded its extensive influence to unfairly direct the Department of Justice, using false claims, to investigate Watson and Northstar, in a four and a half year-long probe that yielded no charges.

The suit is seeking over $8 billion in damages, naming Amazon.com, Inc., Amazon Data Services, Inc., Amazon Web Services, Inc., and several top executives personally, including Amazon’s Founder and Chairman Jeffrey Bezos, Andy Jassy, President and CEO, Dennis Wallace, General Counsel, Keith Klein, AWS Real Estate Transaction Manager, Yousri Omar, Director and Associate General Counsel at Amazon, Matthew Doden, Senior Corporate Counsel on Amazon’s Business Conduct and Ethics Team, and former Vice President of AWS Data Center Community at Amazon Web Services, Chris Vonderhaar.

The detailed 70-page complaint describes a Colorado business Watson founded and built from the ground up for nearly 20 years by the time he and Northstar Commercial Partners properly bid to build and own data centers for Amazon in Northern Virginia. In 2017 Northstar was a billion-dollar company, with real estate assets located in 17 states, 40 employees, and sought-after professional know-how.

According to the lawsuit, Northstar was among several developers to go through the highly competitive and rigorous bidding process to develop and own data centers for Amazon, which are large buildings that store computing machines and related hardware for data services used by companies and governments. The suit states Amazon’s Web Services branch (AWS) runs approximately 299 data centers in 20 countries.

Court records say Northstar entered the data center business in 2018, successfully completing its first two data centers for Amazon by 2019. Northstar completed two more and was on track to deliver five more, after additional extensive bidding processes.

“Amazon alone is expected to build as many as 800 new data centers,” the suit, filed by Nicole A. Westbrook, of Jones & Keller, P.C. stated. “The growth rate for data centers is expected to triple within the next three years. In sum, Mr. Watson entered the data center development market at the beginning of a modern-day Gold Rush, which has only grown massively since then.”

Instead, the lawsuit claims, Amazon and others, including IPI Partners based in Chicago, IL., Northstar’s majority equity investor, funded by 7 billionaires of the tech industry, conspired to exclude Northstar from future data center deals to stifle competition. This was allegedly achieved by several acts, including witness tampering: bribing and pressuring Northstar’s former employees to lie in depositions and “concoct false allegations against Mr. Watson and Northstar,” according to the lawsuit. The complaint further alleges that Amazon exerted pressure on federal authorities to launch a criminal investigation into Watson, as he could only be contractually removed from the investments if he had pled guilty or was convicted of a felony. Neither of which occurred.

According to court records, Amazon as the tenant, allegedly secretly signed an agreement with Northstar’s majority equity investor, without Mr. Watson’s knowledge as the manager of the data center investments, cutting Northstar out of lucrative data center deals, resulting in profits for Amazon.

Watson and Northstar are separately suing IPI Partners and other parties for $2 billion plus additional damages in Colorado (Case No. 1:24-cv-02848) for their role in what the court documents call a mafia-like “racketeering scheme,” as well as Danny Mulcahy the former Northstar employee who is accused of emailing Bezos about the alleged fabricated kickback scheme, asking for a job or money in return. (Case No. 1:24-cv-02606.)

In their lawsuit against Amazon, Watson and Northstar allege the $2.3 trillion tech giant also pursued civil lawfare against them, instigating an SEC investigation. As a result of all these actions, Watson’s home was subjected to an FBI raid, Northstar suffered financial losses exceeding $2 billion, all but one of the 40 employees lost their jobs, and Mr. Watson was harmed personally and professionally.  According to the federal lawsuit, Watson was forcibly removed from his business assets and personal estate, as Amazon and its legal counsel filed multiple false affidavits with the Virginia Court to secure a Receiver to control and hobble Mr. Watson’s assets for almost the past three years, so he could not pay to defend himself against Amazon’s “blitzkrieg attack.” In their complaint, Watson and Northstar say Amazon and its legal counsel at Gibson Dunn later rescinded these false Affidavits for being untrue, but only after the Receiver had been appointed by the Court at Amazon’s request. Alvarez and Marsal was the sole firm that Amazon asked the federal court to appoint to handle the Receivership, and the firm charged Mr. Watson’s company and estate up to $450,000 per month for their supposed services, according to the suit.

The federal complaint accuses the tech giant and its associates of violating antitrust laws, RICO statutes, and other legal claims. Of the 15 claims stated in the lawsuit, this is one of the first times that an antitrust claim has ever been used against Amazon for these specific claims and seems to be the first time in American legal history that the company has been accused of colluding with the Federal Government to limit fair competition in the data center marketplace. Watson and Northstar are seeking treble damages under antitrust law, which could potentially amount to over $8 billion. Consequently, this is the largest lawsuit filed against Amazon and these executives personally since the company’s founding, and is the largest lawsuit ever filed in the State of Colorado for such claims.

“I worked very hard to build my company up from nothing for almost 20 years, and it has been heartbreaking to see how a $2.3 trillion company can manipulate and control the legal system and governmental agencies in America,” Watson said. “I have never been a litigious person prior to Amazon’s attacks, but someone has to hold such corporate behemoths accountable, or they will continue to destroy others. My company may have been small and insignificant in their eyes, but we are filled with grit, persistence, and determination to seek justice.”

According to the complaint, the DOJ ended its investigation in January of 2024. The Receivership that controlled Mr. Watson’s assets was finally removed in May 2024. Additionally, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted summary judgment in favor of Mr. Watson and Northstar on all of Amazon’s Federal claims in March 2023, leaving one state law-based claim with no alleged financial damages to Amazon, stating that those claims were not even worthy to proceed to trial.

CASE INFORMATION

The United States District Court for the District of Colorado
BRIAN WATSON; W.D.C. HOLDINGS, LLC d/b/a NORTHSTAR COMMERCIAL PARTNERS; and NORTHSTAR COMMERCIAL PARTNERS MANAGEMENT, LLC, v. AMAZON.COM, INC.; AMAZON DATA SERVICES, INC., f/k/a VADATA, Inc.; AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC.; JEFFREY BEZOS; D. MATTHEW DODEN; ANDY JASSY; KEITH KLEIN; YOUSRI OMAR; CHRIS VONDERHAAR; and DENNIS WALLACE.
Case No. 1:24-cv-03559
Download the Case (PDF)

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