Former executives at eBay are facing criminal charges for waging a secret harassment campaign against an online newsletter in order to secure positive news coverage.
Allegedly, the executives sent fly larvae, live cockroaches, and a funeral wreath to the married couple behind the newsletter, which had been critical of eBay’s business. The goal was for eBay to eventually swoop in and offer assistance to the newsletter writers so they would be grateful for the help and write more flattering stories. But it didn’t quite work out that way.
The conspiracy began to unravel last August when two of the ex-employees involved were caught spying on the couple’s home in Natick, Massachusetts.
On Monday, the Justice Department announced charges against the six former eBay employees, who include James Baugh, eBay’s former director of safety, and David Harville, the company’s former director of global resilience.
According to the indictment, the conspiracy may have started in April 2019 when the two executives texted each other about harassing the publishers behind the online newsletter. “We are going to crush this lady,” Harville allegedly texted to Baugh.
The indictment does not directly name the online newsletter in question. However, the document does refer to articles from eCommerceBytes, which is published by the married couple David and Ina Steiner, both of whom are based in Natick, Massachusetts.
In response to the news, eBay said law enforcement notified it about the suspected conspiracy in August 2019. EBay then launched its own internal investigation; a month later, it fired the six employees named in today’s indictment, as well as its chief communication officer.
“The Company noted that the internal investigation also examined what role, if any, the Company’s CEO at the time of the incident, Devin Wenig, may have had in this matter. The internal investigation found that, while Mr. Wenig’s communications were inappropriate, there was no evidence that he knew in advance about or authorized the actions that were later directed toward the blogger and her husband,” eBay said in a statement.
Wenig stepped down from his position in September 2019, citing disagreements with the company's board.
How the Harassment Unfolded
Initially, the harassment campaign involved sending a handwritten anonymous letter to eCommerceBytes, demanding the authors stop publishing articles critical of eBay. But in August 2019, the employees escalated the harassment by sending the bizarre packages to the newsletter’s publishers, including a bloody pig mask, and a book titled Grief Diaries: Surviving the Loss of a Spouse.
An email about an order for a "preserved fetal pig" was also sent, while employees also used anonymous Twitter accounts to cyberstalk the publishers behind eCommerceBytes.
(Credit: FBI)
"In these meetings, Baugh referred to having executive support for these actions,” the indictment adds.
Allegedly, the eBay executives also sought to one day target The Wall Street Journal for its negative news coverage of the company. Another goal was to find out the identity of a commenter on eCommerceBytes named “FidoMaster,” who regularly posted opinions critical of eBay and its leadership team. It led the employees to try and place a GPS monitor on a car owned by the publishers of eCommerceBytes at their home.
However, the scheme fell apart when the publishers behind eCommerceBytes spotted a rental car used by the eBay employees circling their neighborhood and reported the matter to local police. Investigators discovered the car was rented by an eBay employee.
“Aware that the police were investigating, the defendants allegedly sought to interfere with the investigation by lying to the police about eBay’s involvement while pretending to offer the company’s assistance with the harassment,” the Justice Department said today.
Federal officials are charging the suspects with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses, which each carry a sentence of up to five years in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000.
ECommerceBytes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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