Former eBay officers charged with cyberstalking couple ‘vital’ of business

Six previous eBay workers were charged with cyberstalking a couple behind a newsletter that executives viewed as “critical” of the business, the United States Department of Justice stated in a Monday release. The workers presumably bugged the Massachusetts couple by sending out threatening messages, a box of live cockroaches and a bloody pig mask, to name a few things. 

eBay’s previous Senior Director of Safety and Security James Baugh and previous Director of Global Resiliency David Harville were jailed and charged by with conspiracy to dedicate cyberstalking and conspiracy to damage witnesses, the Justice Department stated. 

Other offenders who were charged consist of Stephanie Popp, eBay’s previous senior supervisor of international intelligence; Stephanie Stockwell, previous supervisor of eBay’s international intelligence center (GIC); Veronica Zea, a previous eBay professional who worked as an intelligence expert in the GIC; and Brian Gilbert, previous senior supervisor of unique operations for eBay’s international security group. They’re each charged with conspiracy to dedicate cyberstalking and conspiracy to damage witnesses. They are anticipated to appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.

The cyberstalking victims were a couple that act as editor and publisher of an online newsletter covering e-commerce business, according to the charging files. In August 2019, after the newsletter consisted of a short article about lawsuits including eBay, 2 business executives presumably “sent or forwarded text messages suggesting that it was time to ‘take down’ the newsletter’s editor,” the Justice Department states. 

The 6 previous workers along with others presumably started a “three-part harassment campaign” that consisted of sending out a maintained fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath and a book on making it through the loss of a partner to the newsletter’s publisher. 

The 2nd stage consisted of sending out personal Twitter messages and public tweets slamming the newsletter and threatening to check out the couple, the Justice Department states. The 3rd stage presumably included surveilling the victims in their house and neighborhood. 

In a declaration, eBay stated police alerted the business in August about “suspicious actions by its security personnel toward a blogger, who writes about the company, and her husband.” eBay introduced an examination with the assistance of outdoors legal counsel and ultimately fired the workers, including its previous chief interactions officer Steve Wymer, in September.

The ex-communications primary presumably sent out a text to previous eBay CEO Devin Wenig that stated “We are going to crush this lady” following the publication of a story in the newsletter about Wenig’s settlement.  

“eBay took these allegations very seriously from the outset,” an independent unique committee developed by the business’s board of directors to supervise the examination stated in the declaration. “eBay does not tolerate this kind of behavior. eBay apologizes 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.”

The internal examination likewise checked out whether the business’s CEO at the time, Devin Wenig, played any function in the event. “While Mr. Wenig’s communications were inappropriate, there was no evidence that he knew in advance about or authorized the actions that were later directed toward the blogger and her husband,” eBay stated. 

The business likewise stated it didn’t formerly share info about the matter “in order to preserve the integrity of the government’s investigation.”  

The offenders, after discovering the examination, presumably tried to interfere by lying to authorities about the business’s participation and pretending to use eBay’s support. They likewise presumably lied to eBay’s attorneys about their participation. 

Charges for conspiracy to dedicate cyberstalking and conspiracy to damage witnesses each have a sentence of approximately 5 years in jail, 3 years of monitored release, a fine of approximately $250,000 and restitution. A federal district court judge need to enforce sentences.