EBay is fined $3MILLION after employees sent live spiders and cockroaches to a journalist couple to intimidate them after they wrote story attacking website
eBay has been ordered to pay a $3 million fine after a bizarre harassment campaign in which employees sent live spiders and a bloody pig mask to a Massachusetts couple.
The employees involved were prosecuted in 2020, but the latest fine from the Justice Department is against the company itself, which was accused of stalking, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
eBay targeted David and Ina Steiner after the couple produced an online newsletter called Ecommerce Bytes, which upset eBay executives with its reporting.
For several months, eBay’s top management discussed how to “bring down” the couple and launched a campaign of intimidation against them, putting them through “pure hell.”
They sent them anonymous, threatening messages, disturbing deliveries – including a box of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a preserved fetal pig and a bloody pig mask – and spied on them.
David and Ina Steiner were targeted by eBay after they published a blog criticizing the retailer
The strange packages continued to arrive for several weeks, with the contents of each package becoming increasingly bizarre. Fly larvae, spiders, cockroaches and a self-help book on coping with the loss of a spouse were also received by the couple (above)
The pig head the couple received in the mail is seen above in a photo taken by the Massachusetts DA’s Office
U.S. Attorney Josh Levy of Massachusetts told the Associated Press: “EBay has engaged in absolutely heinous, criminal behavior.
“The company employees and contractors involved in this campaign put the victims through pure hell, in a terrifying campaign aimed at silencing their reporting and protecting the eBay brand.”
The $3 million fine is under a three-year deferred prosecution agreement in which criminal charges against eBay could be dropped if they pay the fine and meet their obligations under the agreement.
The harassment campaign began in August 2019, after the Steiners shared an article about lawsuits against eBay and then-CEO Devin Wenig sent a message saying it was time to “take out” the couple.
Wenig messaged a fellow driver saying, “If you’re ever going to take her down… now is the time.”
The director then forwarded Wenig’s message to James Baugh, eBay’s senior director of safety and security, calling Ina Steiner a “biased troll who should be BURNED.”
Baugh was one of seven former employees who ultimately pleaded guilty to charges in the case. Wenig was never charged and denied knowledge of the plan.
Baugh was sentenced to nearly five years in prison in 2022. Another former director, David Harville, was sentenced to two years.
“Copy that,” Baugh replied. ‘I have a plan B. I’m going to put it into motion’
Wymer then forwards the message to Baugh, adding, “She’s a biased troll who needs to be BURNED.”
Throughout the campaign, the couple received a package delivered to their front door containing a mask of a bloodied pig’s head, followed by the delivery of a funeral wreath.
The packages continued to arrive over a period of several weeks. Fly larvae, spiders, cockroaches and a self-help book on coping with the loss of a spouse were also received by the couple.
Baugh’s inspiration for the campaign is said to come from the film Johnny Be Good, a 1988 sports comedy in which friends arranged for a series of “unwanted and distracting items and people” to be delivered to their football coach’s home, including an elephant and a male stripper.
After the bloody pig mask was delivered, Ina received a message on Twitter that read: “AM I ATTENTION NOW????”, court documents show.
According to federal prosecutors, the defendants had pornography addressed to the victims sent to their neighbors’ homes and placed an ad on Craigslist inviting “singles, couples and swingers” to come to the newsletter publisher’s home every evening to to party. .
Meanwhile, Ina Steiner continued to receive harassing and threatening messages on Twitter and strange emails from groups she had never interacted with.
She was contacted by the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patient Support Group and the Communist Party of the United States.
Baugh’s inspiration for the campaign is said to come from the film Johnny Be Good, a 1988 sports comedy in which friends arranged for a series of “unwanted and distracting items and people” to be delivered to their football coach’s home, including an elephant and a male stripper. .
The Steiners also noticed strange cars following them through their small town of Natick, Massachusetts. They reported the incidents to the police, who initially dismissed them as elaborate pranks.
However, after the Steiners photographed one of the suspicious vehicles pursuing them, police were able to trace the license plate to a rental car booked under the name Veronica Zea, who was staying at the Boston Ritz-Carlton hotel, along with a man named David Harville.
As part of the second phase of the campaign, some of the defendants allegedly sent private Twitter messages and public tweets criticizing the newsletter’s content and threatening to visit the victims in Natick.
eBay said in a statement that there is no evidence that former CEO Devin Wenig, who left the company in September, was aware of the harassment campaign.
As they continued to investigate, police later discovered that both Zea and Harville worked for eBay, more than 3,000 miles away in San Jose, California.
The police discovery led to a criminal investigation into an alleged campaign of harassment allegedly ordered by some within eBay’s executive ranks.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling of Massachusetts said at the time: “This was a determined, systematic effort by senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a married couple in Natick, all because they published content that the company’s executives did not like .’
After police linked the activity back to eBay, the people involved allegedly tried to cover their tracks.
The defendants attempted to interfere with the investigation by lying to police about eBay’s involvement, while pretending to assist the company in the harassment, and by lying to eBay’s lawyers about their involvement.
The couple was sent live cockroaches and other insects
They also sent X-rated videos addressed to the Steiners to their neighbors
In September 2019, eBay fired six employees, including senior executives, after learning of the alleged plan to terrorize the blogger.
At some point, Baugh, Gilbert, Popp and Stockwell are said to have planned to fabricate another ‘Person of Interest’ document on eBay that could be presented to police as a clue to some of the harassing deliveries.
Addressing the fine, new CEO Jamie Iannone said: ‘The company’s conduct in 2019 was wrong and reprehensible.
“From the moment eBay first learned of the events of 2019, eBay has cooperated fully and extensively with law enforcement authorities.
“We continue to offer our deepest apologies to the Steiners for what they have had to endure. Since these events, new leaders have joined the company and eBay has strengthened its policies, procedures, controls and training.
“EBay remains committed to maintaining high standards of conduct and ethics and to making things right with the Steiners.”