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Comment by coolspot | Hacker News Reader

For context, her husband was in charge of buying land for Amazon data-centers.

Somehow, Amazon would decide to buy exact parcel that his real estate friend just acquired couple weeks before.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

> On July 30, 2019, Ramstetter and Camenson, working without Watson’s knowledge, bought the land and then sold it to Amazon for $116.4 million, turning a $17.7 million profit on land they owned for less than a day. Attorneys for Amazon contend Casey Kirschner supported the price internally at Amazon in exchange for a $5 million kickback, which he then allegedly split with Nelson.

https://www.geekwire.com/2021/former-aws-real-estate-manager...

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Looks like her argument is that code of conduct is not legally enforceable and that Amazon itself has argued it cannot be used by employees to sue Amazon. Hard to feel sorry for Amazon here for me despite Amazon seemingly being morally in the right in this case

Thanks for the context!

The thread carried all the hallmarks of crazy-person writing and obviously telling just one side of the story, but I really didn't want to chase down the details myself.

Perhaps that's the real reason for the lawsuit? This sounds like fraud, CoC or not. Also IANAL, but I would imagine no breach of employment contract on its own constitutes a criminal offence.

Sounds like it would have been textbook "honest services" fraud if Amazon hadn't worked so hard to exclude their "code of conduct" from their employment contract ;)

Thank you for providing this context. It sounds like everyone involved - Amazon, the DOJ, the supposed victim - all have deep pockets and are deeply unethical.

It turns the original sob story into a different kind of rage bait.

You contend that something illegal took place? Or just that you don’t like it?

Something being against the law doesn't make it immoral or unethical, and conversely something not being against the law doesn't make it not immoral or not unethical. The treatment by Amazon and the feds in this case seems to be horrible (assuming the wife's account is accurate) but her husband's kickback scheme definitely wasn't ethical either.

The person you're replying to was clearly talking about ethics, not about law.

As for me, I'd rather deal with ethical people who break the law than unethical people who follow the law...

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