The two former employees have been sentenced to several years in prison and tens of thousands of dollars in fines. They had mounted a campaign of bullying against two critical journalists.
Both directors, James Baugh and David Harville, were arrested in 2020, along with five of their associates. Some of them have already been convicted. In addition, the eBay employees launched a taunting campaign against Ina and David Steiner, the couple behind the website EcommerceBytes. That site and the accompanying newsletter are often critical of eBay.
In their cyberstalking campaign, eBay employees sent the couple a pig fetus, a funeral wreath and live insects, among other things. They also posted ads on Craigslist for sex parties at the couple’s home and flew to their town to spy on them, attaching a GPS tracker to their car.
eBay fired the employees in 2019 after their actions came to the attention of senior management. They were arrested in 2020. James Baugh, who headed eBay’s security team, is now sentenced to 57 months in prison and a $40,000 fine. David Harville, eBay’s former director of “global resilience,” faces two years behind bars and is fined $20,000.
However, the saga is not quite over yet. After the ruling, the Steiners say they have filed a civil suit against Devin Wenig, former eBay CEO and Steve Wymer, who headed communications for the auction site at the time of the stalking campaign. The Steiners use a law originally drafted to prosecute mafia practices and argue that Wenig and Wymer gave their employees carte blanche to stop critical reporting about the platform in any way.
