Former eBay employees charged with cyberstalking couple who were ‘critical’ of company

Six former eBay employees were charged with cyberstalking a couple behind a newsletter which executives saw as “critical” of the company, the US Department of Justice said in a Monday release. The employees allegedly harassed the Massachusetts couple by sending threatening messages, a box of live cockroaches and a bloody pig mask, among other things. 

eBay’s former Senior Director of Safety and Security James Baugh and former Director of Global Resiliency David Harville were arrested and charged by criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses, the Justice Department said. 

Other defendants who were charged include eBay’s former Senior Manager of Global Intelligence Stephanie Popp; former manager of eBay’s Global Intelligence Center (GIC) Stephanie Stockwell; former eBay contractor Veronica Zea, who worked as an intelligence analyst in the GIC; and former Senior Manager of Special Operations for eBay’s Global Security Team Brian Gilbert. They’re each charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. They’ll appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.

In a statement, eBay said law enforcement notified the company last August about “suspicious actions by its security personnel toward a blogger, who writes about the company, and her husband.” eBay launched an investigation with the help of outside legal counsel and eventually fired the employees, including its former chief communications officer, in September.

“eBay took these allegations very seriously from the outset,” an independent special committee created by the company’s Board of Directors to oversee the investigation said in the statement. “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 investigation also looked into whether the company’s CEO at the time, Devin Wenig, played any role in the incident. “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 said. 

The company also said it didn’t previously share information about the matter “in order to preserve the integrity of the government’s investigation.”