BOSTON (AP) 鈥� Online retailer will pay a $3 million fine to resolve criminal charges over a harassment campaign waged by employees who sent to the home of a Massachusetts couple, according to court papers filed Thursday.
The Justice Department charged eBay with stalking, witness tampering and obstruction of justice more than three years after the employees were prosecuted in the extensive scheme to intimidate David and Ina Steiner. The couple produced an online newsletter called EcommerceBytes that upset eBay executives with its coverage.
California-headquartered eBay has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement that could result in the charges against the company being dismissed if it complies with certain conditions, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts.
鈥淓Bay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct. The company鈥檚 employees and contractors involved in this campaign put the victims through pure hell, in a petrifying campaign aimed at silencing their reporting and protecting the eBay brand,鈥� acting Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said in an emailed statement.
The deferred prosecution agreement says eBay accepted responsibility for the harassment and intimidation, and for obstructing the federal investigation. The agreement calls for an independent monitor to oversee the company for three years to ensure its compliance with the terms and federal law. The $3 million criminal penalty was the maximum possible fine under the charges.
The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment to eBay on Thursday. An email also was sent to a spokesperson for Devin Wenig, who was the company's CEO when the employees targeted the Steiners.
The couple, who served as the newsletter鈥檚 publisher and editor, , describing how cyberstalking and upsetting deliveries of anonymously sent packages upended their lives.
Ina Steiner received harassing and sometimes threatening Twitter messages as well as dozens of strange emails from groups like an irritable bowel syndrome patient support group and the Communist Party of the United States.
Along with a box of live and the cockroaches, the couple had a funeral wreath, a bloody pig mask and a book about surviving the loss of a spouse show up at their door. Their home address also was posted online with announcements inviting strangers to yard sales and parties.
In a statement Thursday, the Steiners said eBay鈥檚 actions had 鈥渁 damaging and permanent impact鈥� on them 鈥渆motionally, psychologically, physically, reputationally, and financially.鈥� They also expressed frustration that more executives were not charged.
鈥淲e strongly pushed federal prosecutors for further indictments to deter corporate executives and board members from creating a culture where stalking and harassment is tolerated or encouraged,鈥� they said.
The harassment started in 2019 after Ina Steiner wrote a story about a lawsuit brought by eBay that accused Amazon of poaching its sellers, according to court records.
A half-hour after the article was published, then-CEO Wenig sent another top executive a message saying: 鈥淚f you are ever going to take her down ... now is the time,鈥� according to court documents. The executive sent Wenig鈥檚 message to James Baugh, who was eBay's senior director of safety and security, and called Ina Steiner a 鈥渂iased troll who needs to get BURNED DOWN.鈥�
Baugh was among seven former employees who to charges in the case. He to almost five years in prison. Another former executive, David Harville, was sentenced to two years.
Wenig, who stepped down as CEO in 2019, was not criminally charged in the case and has denied having any knowledge of the harassment campaign or ever telling anyone to do anything illegal. In the civil case, his lawyers have said the 鈥渢ake her down鈥� quote was taken out of context and the natural inference should be that he was referring to taking 鈥渓awful action,鈥� not 鈥渁 series of bizarre criminal acts.鈥�
Baugh, whom prosecutors described as the mastermind of the scheme, at one point recruited Harville to go with him to Boston to spy on the Steiners, authorities said. Baugh, Harville and another eBay employee went to the couple鈥檚 home in the hopes of installing a GPS tracker on their car, prosecutors said. The trio found the garage locked, so Harville bought tools with a plan to break in, prosecutors said.
Harville鈥檚 attorneys have said he had no involvement in or knowledge about the threatening messages or deliveries sent by his colleagues.
Baugh鈥檚 lawyers have said their client faced relentless pressure from Wenig and other executives to do something about the Steiners. Baugh alleged he was then pushed out by the company when 鈥渁n army of outside lawyers descended to conduct an 鈥榠nternal investigation鈥� aimed at saving the company and its top executives from prosecution.鈥�
Alanna Durkin Richer, The Associated Press
