Feds Charge EBay Over Employees Who Sent Live Spiders And Cockroaches To Couple; Company To Pay $3M

Boston — According to court documents released Thursday, online retailer eBay Inc. will pay a $3 million fine to settle criminal charges stemming from a harassment campaign undertaken by employees who sent live spiders, cockroaches, and other frightening items to the home of a Massachusetts couple.

More than three years after eBay employees were implicated in the massive plan to intimidate David and Ina Steiner, the Justice Department charged the company with stalking, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice. The couple created an online newsletter called EcommerceBytes, which outraged eBay executives with its content.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, eBay, headquartered in California, has engaged in a deferred prosecution agreement that might result in dismissed accusations against the business, provided certain conditions are met.

“eBay participated in awful criminal behaviour. The company’s employees and contractors involved in this effort subjected the victims to absolute hell, in a terrifying campaign geared at silencing their reports and safeguarding the eBay brand,” acting Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said in an emailed statement.

Feds Charge EBay Over Employees Who Sent Live Spiders And Cockroaches To Couple; Company To Pay $3M

According to the deferred prosecution agreement, eBay took responsibility for harassing and intimidating employees and hindering the government inquiry. The deal requires an independent monitor to oversee the corporation for three years to ensure it complies with the conditions and federal laws. The $3 million felony fine was the highest possible under the allegations.

On Thursday, the Associated Press emailed eBay asking for a response. An email was also forwarded to a spokeswoman for Devin Wenig, the company’s CEO at the time the employees targeted the Steiners.

The pair, who functioned as the newsletter’s publisher and editor, sued eBay in federal court, claiming that cyberstalking and unexpected deliveries of anonymously supplied gifts upended their lives.

Ina Steiner received harassing and occasionally threatening Twitter messages, as well as dozens of weird emails from organizations such as the irritable bowel syndrome patient support group and the Communist Party of the United States.

In addition to a box of real spiders and cockroaches, the couple received a funeral wreath, a gory pig mask, and a book about surviving the death of a spouse. Their home address and invitations to yard sales and parties were also publicized online.

Feds Charge EBay Over Employees Who Sent Live Spiders And Cockroaches To Couple; Company To Pay $3M

In a statement posted on their website Thursday, the Steiners stated that eBay’s actions had “a damaging and permanent impact” on them “emotionally, psychologically, physically, reputationally, and financially.” They were also frustrated that more executives had not been charged.

“We strongly pushed federal prosecutors for further indictments to deter corporate executives and board members from creating a culture where stalking and harassment is tolerated or encouraged,” the lawyers added.

According to court filings, the harassment began in 2019 when Ina Steiner reported on an eBay complaint accusing Amazon of stealing its merchants.

According to court filings, a half-hour after the piece was published, then-CEO Wenig emailed another top executive a message saying: “If you are ever going to take her down… now is the time,” The executive forwarded Wenig’s message to James Baugh, eBay’s senior director of safety and security, and labelled Ina Steiner a “biased troll who needs to get BURNED DOWN.”

Baugh was one of seven former employees who eventually pled guilty to charges in the case. He was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to nearly five years in prison. Another former executive, David Harville, received a two-year term.

Feds Charge EBay Over Employees Who Sent Live Spiders And Cockroaches To Couple; Company To Pay $3M

Wenig, who resigned as CEO in 2019, was not charged criminally in the case and has denied any knowledge of the harassment campaign or ever advising anyone to do anything illegal. In the civil lawsuit, his lawyers claimed that the “take her down” comment was taken out of context and that the reasonable inference should have been that he was referring to “lawful action,” not “a series of bizarre criminal acts.”

Baugh, whom prosecutors characterized as the scheme’s mastermind, allegedly invited Harville to accompany him to Boston to spy on the Steiners. According to prosecutors, Baugh, Harville, and another eBay employee went to the couple’s house to place a GPS tracker on their car. According to authorities, Harville purchased tools to break into the garage once the trio discovered it was locked.

Harville’s attorneys claim he had no role in or knowledge of his coworkers’ threatening communications or deliveries.

According to Baugh’s attorneys, Wenig and other executives relentlessly pressured their client to take action against the Steelers. Baugh claimed he was subsequently pushed out of the company after “an army of outside lawyers descended to conduct a ‘internal investigation’ aimed at saving the company and its top executives from prosecution.”

SOURCE – (AP)