eBay Faces Criminal Charges, Agrees to Pay $3M Over Former Employees’ Blogger Harassment Incident

By Moon Harper

Jan 11, 2024 11:48 PM EST

eBay, the global e-commerce company, will pay a $3 million criminal penalty for a harassment and intimidation campaign against a Massachusetts couple's online coverage of eBay in August 2019 and for its obstruction of the investigation that followed.

The campaign involved former eBay employees who targeted the couple regarding a critical newsletter about the e-commerce giant by sending a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, a funeral wreath, live insects, and a book on surviving the death of a spouse.

Six Counts of Felonies

eBay has been charged with six felonies on Thursday, which include two counts of stalking through interstate travel, two counts of stalking through electronic communications services, one count of witness tampering, and one count of obstruction of justice, by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, where eBay must hire an independent corporate compliance monitor for three years and make significant improvements to its compliance program as part of the resolution.

Former Senior Director Along with Six Other Members' Campaign

eBay acknowledged that Jim Baugh, the former senior director of Safety and Security, along with six other members of the company's security team, carried out a harassment campaign intentionally targeting David and Ina Steiner, who had published a newsletter discussing concerns of interest to eBay sellers, intending to intimidate them to alter the published content.

Harassment Campaign

The former employees went to the victim's home, placed a GPS tracking device on their car, and posted ads on Craigslist inviting people for sexual encounters at their residences. They also sent private and public Twitter messages criticizing the couple's newsletter content.

Baugh provided false information to the Natick Police Department and internal investigators following Steiner's call to the police, and his team deleted digital evidence and altered records associated with the cyber-stalking campaign.

Six members of the group have been sentenced for their crimes. In September, Baugh received a prison term of nearly five years (57 months), Harville was sentenced to two years, Popp received a one-year prison sentence, Cooke got 18 months in prison and 12 months of home confinement, while Stockwell and Zea were each sentenced to one year of home confinement.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy stated eBay's horrific and criminal conduct in a press release. As part of this campaign, the company's employees and contractors subjected the victims to a frightening experience, aiming to silence their reporting and protect the eBay brand. Levy emphasized their thorough investigation to hold every individual accountable for causing a never-ending nightmare of menacing and criminal acts that turned the victims' world upside-down.

In a recent settlement, eBay acknowledged the wrongdoing of its former employees. CEO Jamie Iannone stated, "The company's conduct in 2019 was wrong and reprehensible." eBay cooperated fully with law enforcement authorities once they learned of the events in 2019. Iannone apologized to the Steiners for their ordeal, welcomed new leaders, and reinforced its policies, procedures, controls, and training.

Acting U.S. Attorney Levy and FBI SAC Jodi Cohen announced the news today. The Natick Police Department offered valuable investigative assistance, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth B. Kosto, Deputy Chief of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit, handled the prosecution.