The email at right was sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in December 2019. (Courtesy Amazon/court records)
Denver developer Brian Watson, in the fifth year of a court battle with Amazon, has sued the former employee that helped kick it off — and compared the whole thing to a hit HBO series.
The owner and CEO of Northstar Commercial Partners filed a lawsuit this month against Danny Mulcahy, who worked for Northstar from 2017 to mid-2019 as director of equity and then, after a promotion, as managing director of investor relations and capital markets.
Five months after he left Northstar, in December 2019, Mulcahy — who now lives in California and owns USA Camping Co., an RV park owner and operator — sent an email to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, asking “Would you care to hear about a couple of your employees that have taken kick backs”?
That email, Amazon has said in court documents, is what triggered the company to launch an investigation that led the company to sue Watson and Northstar the following spring, accusing him of paying two Amazon employees — Carl Nelson and Casey Kirschner — in order to land deals to develop data centers for the company in northern Virginia.
The case, currently in appeals court, crippled Northstar’s operations. Watson and others were under criminal investigation for a time, although that had ended by early this year when, in a dramatic move, federal prosecutors in Virginia vacated two guilty pleas by Watson associates.
Brian Watson
Watson was never charged and has denied wrongdoing in the civil lawsuit. He has acknowledged making payments to a trust set up by Casey Kirschner’s brother, who introduced the two, but said those were standard referral fees and that he was unaware much of the money was then transferred to the Amazon employees.
The Sept. 20 lawsuit filed against Mulcahy is the second time Watson has gone on the offensive over the matter. He has also filed a lawsuit against IPI Partners, his financing partner on the developments, for booting Northstar from the projects over Amazon’s accusations. That case is on hold.
Watson’s lawsuit against Mulcahy — whose identity as the email sender did not become public until 2022 — accuses his former employee and Mulcahy’s companies of tortious interference, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty and infliction of emotional distress.
Watson, a former Republican nominee for Colorado state treasurer who in a June 2020 court filing listed his personal net worth as $61 million, is asking for at least $2 billion in damages. Jones & Keller attorney Nicole Westbrook, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Watson, declined to discuss how that figure was reached, although the lawsuit alludes to the “destruction” of future “business opportunities.”
Watson announced the lawsuit last week in a news release — apparently his first related to the Amazon disputes — that declared the saga “a story that rivals the show ‘Succession.’” The show, which ran for four seasons ending last year, centered on the struggles for control of a family-owned media conglomerate amidst uncertainty about the health of the family patriarch. (Westbrook, who didn’t write the release, said she has not seen the show.)
In his lawsuit, Watson faults Mulcahy for presenting the kickback payments in the email as fact. In a 2022 deposition, Mulcahy acknowledged had “no proof,” but said his email to Amazon communicated “how I believe things had happened.”
Watson also highlights that Mulcahy signaled in the lawsuit and subsequent communication with Amazon that he would be open to being paid by or getting a job at Amazon in exchange for providing the information.
Mulcahy did not get a job. Kevin Bedell, an attorney in Virginia representing Mulcahy, told BusinessDen last week he “never received any compensation.”
Watson’s lawsuit alleges Mulcahy used Northstar’s investor list to approach individuals — four of whom are named — about investing in his RV park company, despite an employment contract prohibiting him from operating a competing company.
Bedell said that Mulcahy abided by his employment contract and that a company that owns campgrounds should not be considered in competition with Northstar.
The lawsuit also speculates that Mulcahy may have contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allege securities violations at Northstar. The SEC alleged in August 2022 that Watson committed securities fraud by failing to invest his own funds, or that of Northstar, in certain projects despite telling investors he would do so.
That case is still pending. Bedell told BusinessDen that Mulcahy did not contact the SEC.
Bedell said his client was “not too surprised” to see the lawsuit, which he described as “frivolous.”
“This has been threatened for a long time and it’s an obvious attempt to intimidate, harass, seek retribution,” he said.
Bedell noted that Amazon’s litigation against Watson is still pending, and that a court has not ruled that Watson did not knowingly pay kickbacks. While a judge in Virginia dismissed the bulk of the company’s claims last year, saying he did not see evidence that Amazon had been economically harmed, the judge let two claims against Watson proceed to trial. Amazon has appealed the dismissals.
Bedell questioned how Mulcahy could be held responsible for what happened after his email, given the various parties involved and the extent to which litigation remains unresolved. Before the FBI seized items from Watson’s Cherry Hills Village mansion in April 2020, for instance, the agency had to show probable cause for a search warrant, and a judge had to sign off, Bedell said.
“His information was good enough that there were a lot of proceedings that flowed off of it that were deemed not frivolous,” Bedell said.
Bedell said he believed Watson may have filed the lawsuit now due to concerns over the statute of limitations, which govern how long a plaintiff has to bring a case. He said he believes it’s too late to allege many of Watson’s claims.
Westbrook, Watson’s attorney, said he was unable to file the lawsuit earlier because Northstar’s operations and Watson’s finances were controlled by a court-appointed receiver for two-and-a-half years, up until this past May.
“There was no ability for Northstar and Mr. Watson to pursue affirmative claims against anyone,” Westbrook said.
As for the statute of limitations, she said Watson learned some information related to the claims only recently. She specifically mentioned a February call between Kyle Ramstetter, a former Northstar employee who had his guilty plea vacated, and Carl Nelson’s wife Amy. Mulcahy’s name was mentioned 11 times in the 25-minute call, per a transcript.
“Some of these claims accrued at the time these actions were learned of, which were in part this year,” Westbrook said, adding Mulcahy “did his level best” to hide his actions.
Westbrook said she has represented Northstar previously, although not in connection with the Amazon litigation. Her firm, Jones & Keller, is also representing Watson in his SEC case.
Mulcahy wasn’t the only one who raised concerns about Northstar’s Amazon deals. Northstar’s then-chief operating officer did so as well, although he approached IPI Partners rather than Amazon. The first discussion took place in late January 2020 — more than a month after Mulcahy clicked “send.”
The email at right was sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in December 2019. (Courtesy Amazon/court records)
Denver developer Brian Watson, in the fifth year of a court battle with Amazon, has sued the former employee that helped kick it off — and compared the whole thing to a hit HBO series.
The owner and CEO of Northstar Commercial Partners filed a lawsuit this month against Danny Mulcahy, who worked for Northstar from 2017 to mid-2019 as director of equity and then, after a promotion, as managing director of investor relations and capital markets.
Five months after he left Northstar, in December 2019, Mulcahy — who now lives in California and owns USA Camping Co., an RV park owner and operator — sent an email to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, asking “Would you care to hear about a couple of your employees that have taken kick backs”?
That email, Amazon has said in court documents, is what triggered the company to launch an investigation that led the company to sue Watson and Northstar the following spring, accusing him of paying two Amazon employees — Carl Nelson and Casey Kirschner — in order to land deals to develop data centers for the company in northern Virginia.
The case, currently in appeals court, crippled Northstar’s operations. Watson and others were under criminal investigation for a time, although that had ended by early this year when, in a dramatic move, federal prosecutors in Virginia vacated two guilty pleas by Watson associates.
Brian Watson
Watson was never charged and has denied wrongdoing in the civil lawsuit. He has acknowledged making payments to a trust set up by Casey Kirschner’s brother, who introduced the two, but said those were standard referral fees and that he was unaware much of the money was then transferred to the Amazon employees.
The Sept. 20 lawsuit filed against Mulcahy is the second time Watson has gone on the offensive over the matter. He has also filed a lawsuit against IPI Partners, his financing partner on the developments, for booting Northstar from the projects over Amazon’s accusations. That case is on hold.
Watson’s lawsuit against Mulcahy — whose identity as the email sender did not become public until 2022 — accuses his former employee and Mulcahy’s companies of tortious interference, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty and infliction of emotional distress.
Watson, a former Republican nominee for Colorado state treasurer who in a June 2020 court filing listed his personal net worth as $61 million, is asking for at least $2 billion in damages. Jones & Keller attorney Nicole Westbrook, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Watson, declined to discuss how that figure was reached, although the lawsuit alludes to the “destruction” of future “business opportunities.”
Watson announced the lawsuit last week in a news release — apparently his first related to the Amazon disputes — that declared the saga “a story that rivals the show ‘Succession.’” The show, which ran for four seasons ending last year, centered on the struggles for control of a family-owned media conglomerate amidst uncertainty about the health of the family patriarch. (Westbrook, who didn’t write the release, said she has not seen the show.)
In his lawsuit, Watson faults Mulcahy for presenting the kickback payments in the email as fact. In a 2022 deposition, Mulcahy acknowledged had “no proof,” but said his email to Amazon communicated “how I believe things had happened.”
Watson also highlights that Mulcahy signaled in the lawsuit and subsequent communication with Amazon that he would be open to being paid by or getting a job at Amazon in exchange for providing the information.
Mulcahy did not get a job. Kevin Bedell, an attorney in Virginia representing Mulcahy, told BusinessDen last week he “never received any compensation.”
Watson’s lawsuit alleges Mulcahy used Northstar’s investor list to approach individuals — four of whom are named — about investing in his RV park company, despite an employment contract prohibiting him from operating a competing company.
Bedell said that Mulcahy abided by his employment contract and that a company that owns campgrounds should not be considered in competition with Northstar.
The lawsuit also speculates that Mulcahy may have contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allege securities violations at Northstar. The SEC alleged in August 2022 that Watson committed securities fraud by failing to invest his own funds, or that of Northstar, in certain projects despite telling investors he would do so.
That case is still pending. Bedell told BusinessDen that Mulcahy did not contact the SEC.
Bedell said his client was “not too surprised” to see the lawsuit, which he described as “frivolous.”
“This has been threatened for a long time and it’s an obvious attempt to intimidate, harass, seek retribution,” he said.
Bedell noted that Amazon’s litigation against Watson is still pending, and that a court has not ruled that Watson did not knowingly pay kickbacks. While a judge in Virginia dismissed the bulk of the company’s claims last year, saying he did not see evidence that Amazon had been economically harmed, the judge let two claims against Watson proceed to trial. Amazon has appealed the dismissals.
Bedell questioned how Mulcahy could be held responsible for what happened after his email, given the various parties involved and the extent to which litigation remains unresolved. Before the FBI seized items from Watson’s Cherry Hills Village mansion in April 2020, for instance, the agency had to show probable cause for a search warrant, and a judge had to sign off, Bedell said.
“His information was good enough that there were a lot of proceedings that flowed off of it that were deemed not frivolous,” Bedell said.
Bedell said he believed Watson may have filed the lawsuit now due to concerns over the statute of limitations, which govern how long a plaintiff has to bring a case. He said he believes it’s too late to allege many of Watson’s claims.
Westbrook, Watson’s attorney, said he was unable to file the lawsuit earlier because Northstar’s operations and Watson’s finances were controlled by a court-appointed receiver for two-and-a-half years, up until this past May.
“There was no ability for Northstar and Mr. Watson to pursue affirmative claims against anyone,” Westbrook said.
As for the statute of limitations, she said Watson learned some information related to the claims only recently. She specifically mentioned a February call between Kyle Ramstetter, a former Northstar employee who had his guilty plea vacated, and Carl Nelson’s wife Amy. Mulcahy’s name was mentioned 11 times in the 25-minute call, per a transcript.
“Some of these claims accrued at the time these actions were learned of, which were in part this year,” Westbrook said, adding Mulcahy “did his level best” to hide his actions.
Westbrook said she has represented Northstar previously, although not in connection with the Amazon litigation. Her firm, Jones & Keller, is also representing Watson in his SEC case.
Mulcahy wasn’t the only one who raised concerns about Northstar’s Amazon deals. Northstar’s then-chief operating officer did so as well, although he approached IPI Partners rather than Amazon. The first discussion took place in late January 2020 — more than a month after Mulcahy clicked “send.”
