A week and a half before trial, there was a surprise settlement in Amazon’s lawsuit against Brian Watson and others over alleged kickbacks.

The settlement involving Carl Nelson, Casey Kirschner and Arvada attorney Rod Atherton means that Watson and his development firm Northstar Commercial Partners go into trial alone on Monday in Northern Virginia.

The trial, which will take place in a federal courthouse in Alexandria, is six-and-a-half years in the making.

“Brian looks forward to the trial and looks forward to clearing his name,” said attorney Stan Garnett, who is representing Watson.

It revolves around claims made by Seattle-based Amazon that Watson committed fraud and racketeering in connection with the development of data centers for the tech giant in Northern Virginia. Those claims were first made in April 2020, weeks after the pandemic shuttered offices.

The case revolves around millions of dollars that Watson’s firm paid to a trust, money which was later shared with Nelson and Casey Kirschner, two employees that worked on real estate for Amazon. The two men were also sued by Amazon along with Atherton, the attorney they hired to help facilitate the payments.

Amazon has described those payments as kickbacks paid for Nelson and Kirschner steering contracts to Amazon.

Watson has said payments to the trust, set up by Casey’s brother Christian, were legitimate referral fees that compensated Christian for introducing Watson to Amazon and helping Northstar land business. Watson did not direct or intend for a portion of those fees to be passed on to Casey Kirschner or Carl Nelson, he has said.

Amazon was alerted to the situation when a former Northstar employee emailed Jeff Bezos.

The allegations also prompted a parallel criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. In March 2023, Christian Kirschner and former Northstar executive Kyle Ramstetter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. But, in a stunning turn, the guilty pleas were vacated by prosecutors a year later.