Court Watch #10: 22 Lawyers, 15 Minutes?

(Photo: 1121-4 document in 1:20-cv-00484, Amazon v. WDC Holdings LLC)

Welcome to Court Watch #10 - your weekly roundup of all the most interesting federal court filings.  A continued thanks to the ever-growing number of subscribers to our newsletter. It’s clear that our readers love both court records and the occasional irreverent nature of our writing. As such, we've crisscrossed 94 federal districts to make not one but two pop song references and also borrowed a bit from the Italian language.

In this issue, we’ll discuss Twitter being sued for paparazzi pictures, an Alfa Romeo’s radio system leading to the arrest of a fake billionaire, Nazi-loving threats to a university, a flight to the United Kingdom that nearly ended in a mile-high brawl, and everything in between. In short, it’s been a strange week in the federal dockets. 

But before all that, let’s dive into a U.S. government correspondence that said the quiet part loud. 

“We probably seized the funds too early” so says a Justice Department attorney in an email to an Amazon outside counsel. The electronic communication pertained to the DOJ’s seizure of assets of a man that was under investigation regarding a real estate deal with the massive technology company. Amazon is locked into a heated civil case with the defendants, the likes of which would even make the largest Big Law firms blush at the potential billable hours. (The judge in the case remarked last October about the number of attorneys in the courtroom: “Wow! I dealt with 22 lawyers in 15 minutes.”) Despite the government seizure occurring nearly three years ago, there have been no criminal charges. The Justice Department ultimately released the vast majority of the money seized because they said they were concerned that the discovery in the Amazon civil case could affect the ongoing criminal investigation. It’s been nearly a year since that curious email between prosecutors and the multibillion dollar company’s lawyers and no criminal charges have been made.

Another email exhibit introduced by the defendants also seems to indicate that Amazon and the Justice Department discussed the forfeiture prior to issuance. Amazon and the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia did not respond to requests for comments. 

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