eBay has agreed to pay a $3 million fine in connection with a corporate cyberstalking campaign that targeted a Massachusetts couple in 2019. The cyberstalking campaign was carried out by multiple eBay employees, some of whom were executives, who targeted the couple after… They published a newsletter that was critical of the e-commerce giant. The cyberstalking campaign involved staff sending the couple a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, a funeral wreath, live insects, and a book about surviving the husband’s death.
Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Announce The fine on Thursday revealed that the company had committed six felonies. eBay is charged with two counts of stalking by interstate travel, two counts of stalking by electronic communications services, one count of witness tampering, and one count of obstruction of justice.
eBay admitted that Jim Pugh, eBay’s former senior director of safety and security, and six other members of the company’s security team targeted the couple after they published a newsletter that addressed issues of concern to eBay sellers. Pugh and other employees then conducted a harassment campaign aimed at intimidating victims into changing the content of the newsletter.
Staff visited the couple’s home and installed a GPS tracking device on their car. They also created ads on Craigslist inviting the public for sexual encounters at the victims’ home. In addition, employees sent private Twitter messages and public tweets criticizing the content of the newsletter.
Pugh was sentenced to 57 months in prison in September 2022, while the other six employees were given varying sentences, ranging from two years in prison to home confinement.
Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. “eBay has engaged in absolutely horrific criminal conduct,” Levy said in a press release. “Company employees and contractors involved in this campaign put victims through pure hell, in a terrifying campaign designed to silence their reporting and protect the eBay brand. We have left no stone unturned in our mission to hold accountable every individual who has turned victims’ world upside down through a never-ending nightmare of threatening and criminal actions.” .
In addition to paying the fine, eBay must also retain an independent corporate compliance monitor for three years and make “extensive improvements to its compliance program.”
eBay said in a press release today that it takes responsibility for the misconduct of former employees.
“The company’s behavior in 2019 was wrong and reprehensible,” eBay CEO Jimmy Iannone said in the press release. “From the moment eBay first became aware of the events of 2019, eBay has fully and extensively cooperated with law enforcement authorities. We continue to extend our deepest apologies to the Steiners family for what they experienced. Since these events occurred, new leaders have joined the company and eBay has strengthened its policies.” Its procedures and policies. Regulations And training.