Ex-eBay execs charged with cyberstalking bloggers

Six former eBay employees, including two executives, were charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking after allegedly ordering a bloody pig mask, a funeral wreath and roaches to be sent to a couple who publish an online newsletter about e-commerce.

The Department of Justice announced the charges Monday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.

All six former eBay employees were also charged with conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

The DOJ says the case started in August 2019, when a couple in Natick, Massachusetts, published an article about a lawsuit involving eBay on their e-commerce news site. The DOJ complaint alleges the eBay employees sent texts saying it was time to “take down” the editor and publisher.

The employees sent pornography to the publisher’s neighbors in packages addressed to him, ordered the pig mask and a preserved fetal pig to be sent to the couple’s home and also sent them a book about “surviving the loss of a spouse,” according to the complaint.

The victims are not named in the complaint.

The former eBay employees charged are James Baugh, who was eBay’s senior director of safety and security; David Harville, who was eBay’s director of global resiliency; eBay contractor Veronica Zea; and California employees Stephanie Popp, Stephanie Stockwell and Brian Gilbert, who is a former Santa Clara police captain.

Attempts to immediately reach the former employees were unsuccessful. EBay said in a statement Monday that it started investigating the incidents in August of last year and fired all the employees, including the company’s chief communications officer, who was not included in Monday’s charges.

EBay also said that former CEO Devin Wenig was investigated.

“The internal investigation found that, 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,” the company wrote in a public post. “However, as the Company previously announced, there were a number of considerations leading to his departure from the Company.”