Six former eBay employees have been charged over an alleged spying and harassment campaign against critical bloggers that included sending them live cockroaches and spiders in the post.
The defendants, including ex-senior members of the e-commerce giant’s security team, used various cyberstalking and real-world shock tactics in a bid to silence an e-retail news website that bosses saw as critical of the company, according to the US Department of Justice.
These included sending the victims, who run eCommerce Bytes but are not named in the complaint, “threatening messages” and “disturbing deliveries” of a preserved fetal pig, a "bloody pig Halloween mask", funeral wreath and pornography, as well as conducting covert surveillance on them.
After the pig mask was delivered, the editor received a message saying: "DO I HAVE UR ATTENTION NOW????".
The site's Massachusetts-based editor and publisher, who are also a couple, were also sent a book titled Surviving Loss of a Spouse, the DoJ alleges.
According to federal prosecutors, two eBay executives were unhappy with stories and editorial published on eCommerce Bytes and the anonymous reader comments that appeared beneath them.
It is alleged that in August 2019, after the site published a story about litigation involving eBay, the unnamed executives sent or forwarded text messages suggesting it was time to “take down” the editor.
Other probing stories published included one titled “eBay CEO Devin Wenig Earns 152 Times That of Employees”.
According to the DoJ, the journalists were also targeted with private and public Twitter messages, including “threatening to visit the victims”.
This culminated in the couple allegedly being “doxed”, the internet term for broadcasting a home address online.
Prosecutors say further tactics included one defendant trying to befriend the couple to promote “goodwill towards eBay”.
It is also claimed that the writers were put under convert surveillance in their home and around their local community.
But the alleged campaign unravelled after four of the defendants were stopped by police while trying to break into the victims’ garage to “install a GPS tracking device on their car”.
Fake documents were found by police claiming the bloggers were being probed as “persons of interest” for threatening eBay executives.
It is further alleged that during the police investigation, the defendants had “sought to interfere” with the inquiry by lying about eBay’s involvement.
James Baugh, 45, eBay’s former senior director of safety and security, and Daniel Harville, 48, the online marketplace’s former director of global resiliency were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. Four other defendants - ex-contractor Veronica Zea, 26, former employees Stephanie Popp, 32, Stephanie Stockwell, 26, and Brian Gilbert, 51, previously a police captain - face the same charges.
They had previously worked in eBay’s security or intelligence departments.
Cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses charges each carry a sentence of up to five years in prison.
Court appearances are to be scheduled.
EBay said that following an internal investigation it had “terminated all involved employees”.
The company said in a statement: “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.”
An inquiry into Mr Wenig, who left the company in September 2019, was also conducted.
EBay said that while it found Mr Wenig's “communications were inappropriate, there was no evidence that he knew in advance about or authorised the actions that were later directed towards the blogger and her husband”.
Mr Wenig, who has not been charged, said: "As confirmed by the company following a thorough, independent investigation, I did not direct or know anything about the acts that have been charged in Boston. I have spent my career defending press freedoms.
"What these charges allege is unconscionable."
