EBay has agreed to pay a $3 million fine to resolve harassment charges against bloggers who were critical of the company.
Bosses at the online auction site sent live spiders and cockroaches to Ina and David Steiner, according to court papers, as part of the couple being allegedly targeted for producing a newsletter the employees disliked.
Filings said the pair had been left feeling “emotionally, psychologically, and physically” terrorised.
The US Attorney’s Office in the District of Massachusetts said Jim Baugh, eBay’s former senior director of safety and security, had targeted the couple for producing EcommerceBytes, a newsletter hated by the company’s executives.
Baugh and six associates led a campaign to intimidate the Steiners, the court papers say, with acts of intimidation including sending live insects, a foetal pig and a funeral wreath to the Steiners’ home in Natick, Massachusetts.
Papers also state Baugh and his associates also installed a GPS tracking device on the couple’s car and created posts on the website Craigslist inviting sexual encounters at their home.
The employees named were fired by eBay shortly after the incident and in 2021, worker Philip Cooke was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The following year, Baugh was sentenced to nearly five years.
Baugh’s lawyers said he faced pressure from former eBay CEO Devin Wenig to rein in the Steiners over their coverage of the company.
Mr Wenig, who stepped down in 2019, has not been charged in the case and denies knowledge of the harassment campaign.
Acting Massachusetts US Attorney Josh Levy said: “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.”
