Amazon employee bribery case latest progress! Mysterious man K appears

The case is becoming increasingly confusing, and in addition to the boxes full of cash, the destroyed Amazon pages and the six defendants, new developments that emerged this week have surprised people.

Just days before the fourth and fifth defendants in the case were scheduled to go to federal court on Friday, Joseph Nelson filed his sentencing memorandum, telling the court how he and co-defendant Kristen Leches were dragged into the conspiracy by the mysterious Mr. K. His attorney explained in a footnote that “due to the sensitivity of this individual’s identity, he will be referred to throughout as Mr. K.”

It is understood that Nelson started selling books on Amazon in 2014, and later he found a job doing odd jobs for lawyer Corey Rosenbaum, whose main business is allegedly to help Amazon sellers whose accounts have been frozen recover their accounts.

Ten months later, Nelson quit his job and struck a partnership with a friend of Mr. Rosenbaum's, a former fraternity member and client named Mr. K.

Nelson said he had heard rumors that (Mr. K) had ties to organized crime and claimed that Mr. K told him that he had bugged the lawyer's home. To prove his point, Mr. K downloaded a video from Rosenbaum's home where Nelson overheard a private exchange between Rosenbaum and his wife.

According to Nelson, he severed ties with Mr. K in 2019, but he was still so afraid of him that when the FBI forced open Mr. Nelson's door at 6 a.m., Nelson was relieved that it was not Mr. K and his associates.

Although Mr. Nelson could not defend his actions, he claimed that he refused to disrupt the accounts of third-party sellers without reason. For example, in November 2019, Nelson's client asked Nelson to attack a small third-party cannabis oil seller. Nelson understood that the attack was purely for economic purposes - to hit a competitor so that he could take more market share - but Nelson refused and cut off contact with him.

“Defendant Joseph Nelson, as a consultant to Amazon sellers, played a central role in the alleged conspiracy to obtain illegal benefits through bribery on the Amazon platform,” the sentencing memorandum for Nelson filed on September 1 stated. “Of all the co-defendants, Nelson engaged in the most extensive illegal activity, including negative attacks on competitors.”

Nielsen pleaded guilty in May last year to conspiracy to commit fraud and to filing a false tax return, while co-defendant Leches pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Travel Act.

Interestingly, both of the two Assistant U.S. Attorneys who initially prosecuted the case on behalf of the government left their positions to work for Microsoft.

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