Feds: 6 eBay Executives and Employees Engaged in Cyberstalking Terror Campaign Against Company Critics

Six former eBay executives and employees are currently facing federal charges for allegedly cyberstalking a couple that was critical of the company in an online e-commerce newsletter. The eBay team’s campaign of terror included sending a bloody mask, live cockroaches, and a funeral wreath to their targets after a senior executive at the company allegedly said it was time to “take down” the editors. One text message within the group said the team’s goal was to “crush this lady.”

CBS Boston reports that six former eBay executives and employees are now facing federal charges over allegations that they led a cyberstalking campaign a couple in Natick, Massachusetts, for publishing an online e-commerce newsletter that was critical of eBay.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling stated that the eBay employees harassed the Massachusetts couple with “disturbing deliveries” which included a bloody pig mask, a box of live cockroaches, and a funeral wreath. Anonymous threatening messages were also allegedly sent to the couple, and the eBay employees have been accused of traveling to Massachusetts to conduct “covert surveillance” of the victims.

Lelling stated: “It was a determined, systematic effort of senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a couple in Natick, all because they published content company executives didn’t like.”

eBay’s former Director of Safety and Security, James Baugh and former Director of Global Resiliency David Harville were among the six former employees charged this week. Others charged include Stephanie Popp, of San Jose; Stephanie Stockwell of Redwood City, California; Veronica Zeak, of San Jose; and Brian Gilbert, of San Jose.

Each of the former employees has been charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. The individuals charged were all employed by eBay at the time of their alleged cyberstalking campaign. Popp worked as eBay’s senior manager of global intelligence, Stockwell was the firm’s manager of global intelligence center, Zea was a contractor working as an intelligence analyst and Gilbert was a senior manager of special operations for eBay’s global security team. Gilbert is also a former police captain.

The couple allegedly harassed by the eBay team serve as editors and publishers for an online newsletter that covers e-commerce companies. According to the lawsuit, eBay’s executive leadership team followed the newsletter closely and took issues with the content and comments on the newsletter. In 2019, it’s alleged that two members of the leadership team sent or forwarded text messages saying that it was time to “take down” the newsletter’s editors. One of the messages stated that the group wanted to “crush this lady.”

Lelling commented: “I don’t think I would characterize the conduct as rogue, because as seen in the complaint, the directive to do something about this goes pretty high up the chain within eBay.” Lelling further described the deliveries that the couple allegedly received from the eBay employees:

These deliveries included fly larvae and live spiders, a box of live cockroaches, a sympathy wreath on the occasion of the death of a loved one, a book of advice on how to survive the death of a spouse, pornography mailed to their next door neighbors but in the couple’s names, Halloween masks featuring the face of the bloody pig, and the pig fetus which was ordered, but after an inquiry by the supplier, thankfully, wasn’t ever sent.

COMMENTS