Tech and retail giant Amazon and associated podcasters have settled a defamation lawsuit with a Georgia doctor who demanded at least $15 million after being accused of performing unnecessary hysterectomies on detained immigrant women without their consent.
Mahendra Amin sued Amazon and its subsidiary, Wondery, in March 2024 over an episode of the “Seven Deadly Sinners” podcast that focused on his treatment of women in custody at the Irwin County Detention Center in South Georgia.
Case records show Amin performed two hysterectomies on detainees at the facility between 2017 and 2019, both of which were deemed medically necessary by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But a whistleblower complaint in 2020 alleging deplorable conditions and medical malpractice at the detention center prompted nationwide reports about Amin. He said the “Seven Deadly Sinners” podcast, hosted by Rachael O’Brien, in April 2023 accused him of abusing women, though the whistleblower’s allegations about him had been disproved.
“Defendants were not interested in the truth; they were interested in the shock value of the allegations as a method of drawing attention to their podcasts,” Amin said in his complaint.
In an attempt to dismiss the case in 2024, Amazon and Wondery said they did not develop, and were unaware of, the podcast content. They said they aren’t liable as mere providers of the website and computer service through which the podcast episode was distributed.
Stacey Evans, an attorney for Amin, said the settlement terms are confidential. The case was officially closed Friday.
The agreement comes after Amin confidentially settled a related defamation case against NBCUniversal Media earlier this year, just before trial. In that case, he had sought $30 million.
“Dr. Amin is glad to put yet another lawsuit behind him as he works to avenge his reputation after such horrific attacks on his character,” Evans told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday.
Representatives for Amazon, Wondery and affiliated podcast publisher Morbid Network did not immediately respond to questions about the case.
Attorney John Ray, who represents podcast host O’Brien, said she is pleased the case has been resolved.
Medical malpractice claims separately filed against Amin by female detainees at the Irwin County center were dismissed in 2024 by a federal judge in South Georgia.
Amin, who has been licensed to practice medicine in Georgia for almost 40 years, lives in Douglas, Coffee County. When he was treating ICE detainees in nearby Irwin County, Amin was the sole obstetrician-gynecologist in the area.
The claims about Amin sparked multiple investigations by ICE, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Georgia Composite Medical Board, the U.S. Department of Justice and other government agencies. The state board found the allegations were unsubstantiated, Amin said in court filings. Homeland Security issued recommendations to ICE concerning the detention center.
A U.S. Senate committee concluded in November 2022 that female detainees at the Georgia facility were subjected to excessive, invasive and often unnecessary gynecological procedures, for which there were repeated failures to secure informed consent. Court filings show Amin declined to testify before the Senate committee, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The detention center housed about 4% of female ICE detainees nationwide 2017-2020, when Amin accounted for about 6.5% of all OB-GYN visits among all ICE detainees, court records show.
Amin said in court filings he stopped treating detainees at the facility in 2020.
In an unrelated DOJ probe, Amin and others settled Medicaid fraud claims in 2015. The settlement was paid by the Hospital Authority of Irwin County, Amin’s lawyer, Scott Grubman, said.
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