Bloody pig mask, roaches and a funeral wreath: Six eBay employees ‘orchestrated extensive harassment campaign’ against middle-aged couple
Six former eBay employees are facing federal charges for allegedly harassing a middle-aged couple who ran an e-commerce newsletter.
The charges were announced on Monday during a press conference out of Boston, Massachusetts.
According to charging documents, the defendants allegedly sent the couple bizarre deliveries, including live cockroaches, a bloody pig mask, and a funeral wreath.
They are also accused of sending the couple threatening messages and of subjecting them to covert surveillance.
James Baugh, eBay’s former senior director of safety and security, has been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. David Harville, eBay’s former director of global resiliency, has been arrested on the same charges.
Four other defendants are charged in separate documents with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses: Stephanie Popp, eBay’s former senior manager of global intelligence; Stephanie Stockwell, the former manager of eBay’s global intelligence centre (GIC); Veronica Zea, a former eBay contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst in the GIC; and Brian Gilbert, a former senior manager of special operations for eBay’s global security team.
Authorities said on Monday that eBay had cooperated with the investigation and suspended, then terminated, all six employees. EBay has condemned the former employees’ alleged actions and apologised in a statement.
The alleged victims are named in charging documents only as Victim One and Victim Two. Both lived in Natick, Massachusetts during the alleged harassment. Victim One is identified as the reporter and editor of an online newsletter that covered e-commerce companies, including eBay. Victim Two, Victim One’s spouse, was the newsletter’s publisher.
According to prosecutors, “members of the executive leadership team at eBay followed the newsletter’s posts, often taking issue with its content and the anonymous comments underneath the editor’s stories”.
Two members of eBay’s executive leadership team allegedly “sent or forwarded text messages suggesting that it was time to ‘take down’ the newsletter’s editor,” in August 2019, after the newsletter ran coverage of litigation involving eBay.
According to the prosecution, Baugh, Harville, Popp, Gilbert, Zea, Stockwell, and others allegedly executed a three-part harassment campaign in response.
“Among other things, several of the defendants ordered anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims’ home, including a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, a book on surviving the loss of a spouse, and pornography – the last of these addressed to the newsletter’s publisher but sent to his neighbours’ homes,” prosecutors said in a release.
The fetal pig delivery was flagged by the retailer and ultimately cancelled, according to charging documents, which also allege that “on 14 August 2019, one or more members of the conspiracy ordered roaches for delivery to the victims’ home”.
During a press conference on Monday, United States Attorney Andrew E Lelling described the newsletter as fairly routine and not especially prominent.
Lelling described the alleged harassment as “a systematic campaign fuelled by the resources of a Fortune 500 company to emotionally and psychologically terrorise this middle-aged couple in Natick, with the goal of deterring them from writing bad things online about eBay”.
The charges of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses each carry a sentence of up to five years in prison, with three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, as well as restitution.
EBay has released a statement attributed to an independent committee formed to oversee the company’s investigation into the situation.
“EBay took these allegations very seriously from the outset. Upon learning of them, eBay moved quickly to investigate thoroughly and take appropriate action,” the statement reads in part. “The company cooperated fully and extensively with law enforcement authorities throughout the process. EBay does not tolerate this kind of behaviour. EBay apologises to the affected individuals and is sorry that they were subjected to this. EBay holds its employees to high standards of conduct and ethics and will continue to take appropriate action to ensure these standards are followed.”
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