Source: @jqbrattonphoto / R1
The Justice Department is charging eBay $3 million as a criminal penalty for carrying out a harassment and intimidation campaign against a Massachusetts couple, which involved mailing them creepy-crawlies and other stomach-churning packages. Other items included a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, a funeral wreath, and a book about grieving the loss of a spouse. The employees also threatened to visit them at their home, and they published a Craigslist ad inviting people to the couple’s home for sex. The incident, according to a filing published on Thursday, took place in 2019, and the Justice Department says the undesirable mail was in retaliation for the couple writing negatively about eBay in an e-newsletter.
Between Aug. 5 and Aug. 23., 2019, eBay’s former Senior Director of Safety and Security, Jim Baugh, and six members of eBay’s security team targeted David and Ina Steiner for publishing a newsletter called EcommerceBytes that criticized the auction site, according to the filing. One of the stories that Baugh objected to focused on a lawsuit eBay filed against Amazon, accusing it of stealing sellers. The harassment campaign began after Baugh and the Steiners began communication with one another.
The Steiners eventually contacted local police to complain of harassment. Baugh initially denied his and his employees’ actions and they deleted messages they sent to each other, per the filing.
The company, which has since admitted to the wrongdoing, was charged with several counts of stalking, one count of witness tampering, and another of obstructing justice. The $3 million fine is the statutory maximum for these offenses. eBay must also hire an independent compliance monitor for the next three years. The company has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, which may find the charges dismissed if they stick with the agreement.
