SAN JOSE (dpa-AFX) - ecommerce company eBay, Inc. (EBAY) has agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $3 million to settle charges related to a corporate cyber-stalking campaign in August 2019 that targeted a Massachusetts couple in retaliation for their online newsletter coverage of eBay.
As part of the settlement, eBay will also be required to retain an independent corporate compliance monitor for a period of three years and to make extensive enhancements to its compliance program.
The company was charged criminally with six felony offenses, including two counts of stalking through interstate travel, two counts of stalking through electronic communications services, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstruction of justice.
eBay has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and has eBay admitted to a detailed recitation of all the relevant facts about its conduct.
eBay has admitted that between approximately August 5, 2019 and August 23, 2019, Jim Baugh, eBay's former Senior Director of Safety and Security, and six other members of eBay's security team targeted the victims for their roles in publishing a newsletter that reported on issues of interest to eBay sellers.
These senior executives were frustrated with the newsletter's tone and content, and with the comments posted beneath the newsletter's articles.
The harassment campaign included sending anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims' home, including a book on surviving the death of a spouse, a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig and a funeral wreath and live insects.
They also sent private Twitter messages and public tweets criticizing the newsletter's content and threatening to visit the victims in Natick, and traveling to Natick to surveil the victims and install a GPS tracking device on their car. The harassment also featured Craigslist posts inviting the public for sexual encounters at the victims' home.
'eBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct. The company's 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,' said Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levy.
Apart from the criminal penalty, seven eBay employees and contractors, including Baugh, were sentenced to several months in federal prison, ranging from the maximum of 57 months in prison for the ringleader Baugh, and the minimum of 12 months for few others. Brian Gilbert, a former Senior Manager of Security Operations, has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
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