eBay to pay $3 million fine for harassment of couple behind newsletter

EBay has agreed to pay $3 million to resolve a U.S. criminal investigation into a campaign by several of its employees to stalk and harass a Massachusetts couple whose online newsletter was deemed critical of the e-commerce company.

Federal prosecutors in Boston said Thursday that eBay had entered into a deferred processing agreement to solve the case after seven former eBay workers admitted participating in an extensive campaign in 2019 that involved sending the couple cockroaches, fly larvae and a bloody Halloween pig mask.

The victims were David and Ina Steiner, a couple from Natick, Massachusetts, who produce the newsletter EcommerceBytes and are suing eBay for what they say was a relentless campaign by its employees to terrorize them.

The $3 million fine represents the maximum penalty prosecutors said they could seek after charging eBay with six counts of harassment, obstruction of justice and witness tampering for what they called its “absolutely horrific” criminal conduct.

“The company employees and contractors involved in this campaign subjected victims to hell in a petrifying campaign aimed at silencing their reporting and protecting the eBay brand,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement.

The San Jose, California-based company admitted facts about its conduct and agreed to hire an independent corporate compliance monitor for three years and must make changes to its compliance program. The charges would be dropped after three years if he complies with the agreement.

eBay CEO Jamie Iannone in a statement called his company's conduct in 2019 “wrong and reprehensible” and said eBay was “committed to maintaining high standards of conduct and ethics and making things right with the Steiners.” .

Prosecutors said top executives viewed the Steiners' newsletter as critical of eBay, and in August 2019, then-CEO Devin Wenig texted another executive saying it was time to “take her down,” referring to Ina Steiner.

Wenig, a former Thomson Reuters executive who resigned as eBay CEO in September 2019, was not charged and his spokesperson said Wenig had “absolutely zero knowledge” of the actions eBay employees took. A spokesman declined to comment Thursday.

Jim Baugh, a former Central Intelligence Agency employee who at the time served as eBay's senior director of security, oversaw the harassment campaign. His lawyer has said he felt pressured to do something.

At Baugh's direction, the Steiners received anonymous, harassing messages on Twitter, strange emails and disturbing home deliveries that included spiders, a funeral wreath and a book on how to survive the loss of a spouse, prosecutors said.

In August 2019, Baugh and others traveled from California to Natick to surveil the Steiners and attempt to install a GPS tracking device in their car. The Steiners saw them and contacted police, prompting the federal investigation.

Baugh was sentenced in September 2022 to 57 months in prison. Others involved in the case have received sentences ranging from house confinement to two years in prison.

The Steiners' lawsuit remains pending and their trial is scheduled for March 2025. In a statement, they said they are determined to “do everything possible to ensure that no corporation feels there is an option to crush a person's First Amendment.” . rights.”