Northstar CEO Whose Guilty Plea Was Overturned: ‘It Was All Out of My Control’

A former Denver-based executive with Northstar Commercial Partners said “everything was out of my control” and that he was “threatened with f***ing everything” when he and his former employer came under scrutiny over deals to develop data centers for Amazon in northern Virginia.

Kyle Ramstetter made the comments in a recorded phone call late on the evening of February 3, about a week after the federal government’s decision the criminal proceedings against him were discontinued even though he would he has already pleaded guilty.

“I don’t know how to say this,” he said in the interview. “There’s a lot of sh*t that I had no control over.”

Ramstetter’s comments come amid a long-running legal dispute between Amazon and Northstar, a real estate development company owned and run by Colorado-based Brian Watson. The Seattle-based company sued Watson in April 2020.alleging that he paid bribes to Amazon employees Carl Nelson and Casey Kirschner to win development contracts. A parallel criminal investigation dragged on for years but appears to have concluded.

The parties have denied any wrongdoing. Watson’s attorneys have argued that his payments to a trust established by Casey’s brother, Christian Kirschner, were legitimate referral fees that compensated Christian Kirschner for helping to run Northstar Land’s business, and that Watson did not direct or intend to pass on any portion of those fees to Casey Kirschner or Carl Nelson. Nelson has argued that he did not breach his employment agreement with Amazon.

Ramstetter made the comments during a phone conversation with Amy Nelson, Carl’s wife, who regularly speaks about the case and its impact on her family on social media and in interviews with media outlets such as Entrepreneur and media personalities like Tucker Carlson. Ramstetter said in the interview that his wife encouraged him to reach out to Nelson after seeing her speaking on TikTok.

Ramstetter joined Northstar in late 2017 as a project manager and later rose to director of development, according to court documents. He left the company in October 2019, according to Watson’s attorney.

Ramstetter’s attorney did not respond to repeated requests for comment from BusinessDen.

Before their phone call, Ramstetter and Nelson’s husband were apparently on opposite sides of the case. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a deal with prosecutors and settled civil claims brought by Amazon, while the Nelsons fought the civil claims in court and downsized their lives — selling their Seattle home and moving closer to her family in Ohio — after prosecutors money was confiscated from their bank accounts and legal bills mounted. Ramstetter’s funds were never seized.

In connection with his March 2023 guilty plea, Ramstetter said in court documents that he knew Northstar was making bribes to Casey Kirschner and Carl Nelson and that he helped facilitate that conduct.

Ramstetter also admitted in court documents to paying bribes. He served as the CEO of two limited liability companies that bought land in Virginia for $98 million in July 2019 and then immediately sold it to Amazon for $116 million. Watson, Carl Nelson and Casey Kirschner ultimately received a share of the profits.

After Ramstetter pleaded guilty, Amazon reached a settlement with him, dropping him from the company’s lawsuit in exchange for Ramstetter’s testimony when the company’s case against Watson, Nelson, and Casey Kirschner went to trial.

But this attempt was finally canceled after federal court judge he dismissed most of them Amazon’s claims against the three men and related entities. And in January, federal prosecutors he overturned his confession filed by Ramstetter and Christian Kirschner, stating that continuing the case “is not in the best interests of justice.”

But in a phone conversation in February, Ramstetter took a different stance on the financial arrangements with Nelson, saying “your husband did nothing wrong.”

“I’m on your side,” Ramstetter said. “They’re just threatening me with everything, every single aspect of my life, which I know you guys are too, which is so, fuck, I didn’t know what to do.”

In his conversation with Amy Nelson, Ramstetter mentioned Danny Mulcahy, a former Northstar executive who alerted Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to payments — “I want to get everything human from Danny, to put it bluntly” — and IPI Partners, Northstar’s financial partner in Amazon transactions that the company he has since suedIPI has the support of the Silicon Valley elite.

“Mark Zuckerberg’s billionaire foundation had a vendetta against Brian,” Ramstetter said in the interview.

When Amy Nelson peppered him with questions, Ramstetter repeatedly told her to call her husband’s lawyer, adding that he knew the conversation was being recorded.

“If you need anything from me, I’ll be happy to help you fight,” he said.

After the conversation ended, the couple tentatively made plans to meet in person in Columbus, where Ramstetter was traveling to a college basketball game in late February. But the meeting never happened, Amy Nelson told BusinessDen. She added that her husband did not ask his lawyer to contact Ramstetter because the couple, who have spent $3.7 million in legal bills so far, did not want to incur additional costs unnecessarily.

“I can’t say I was surprised by what he said, but I felt quite reassured when he said my husband had done nothing wrong,” Nelson told BusinessDen, adding that her family is “still dealing with the fallout from all of this, every single day.”

Watson’s attorney, Stan Garnett, called the conversation “obviously a very interesting phone call.”

“Mr. Ramstetter’s statements to Amy Nelson and Carl Nelson are entirely consistent with Brian Watson’s view of what happened, which is that people were under significant pressure to talk about him and others,” said Garnett of Garnett Powell Maximon Barlow & Farbes.

After receiving the transcript of the call, Amazon issued a statement regarding the company’s position on the matter.

“These defendants orchestrated a sophisticated scheme to obtain millions of dollars in kickbacks related to Amazon real estate projects, and there is ample evidence to support that,” Amazon spokesman Brad Glasser said. “Given this evidence and the egregious facts we have uncovered regarding this misconduct, we must act to protect our interests and will continue to pursue our civil case.”

In court documents, Amazon has previously expressed disappointment that Ramstetter had pleaded guilty.

“However, the government has unfortunately decided to give the perpetrators a free hand without explaining to the victims or the court why it is doing so,” the company said in a January letter. “This decision is disappointing.”

On the civil side, Amazon is appealing the dismissal of most of the claims in its lawsuit. Even if it fails, parts of the lawsuit remain resolved. Two claims against Watson and one against Carl Nelson and Casey Kirschner have been allowed to proceed to trial.