6 eBay Executives And Employees Charged With Sending Threats, Bloody Pig Mask To Newsletter Editors

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https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/06/15/ebay-employees-arrested-u-s-attorney-andrew-lelling-cyberstalking/

Spoiler

BOSTON (CBS) – Six former eBay executives and employees are facing federal charges after they allegedly led a cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple they believed was critical of the company in an online ecommerce newsletter.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said the eBay employees’ harassment included sending the couple “disturbing deliveries” that included a bloody pig mask, a box of live cockroaches, and a funeral wreath. The employees also allegedly sent anonymous threatening messages and traveled to Massachusetts to conduct “covert surveillance” of the victims.

“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,” said Lelling.

Former eBay director of global resiliency David Harville, 48, of New York City, was arrested Monday on the same charges.

Also charged were Stephanie Popp, 32, of San Jose; Stephanie Stockwell, 26, of Redwood City, Calif.; Veronica Zeak, 26, of San Jose; and Brian Gilbert, 51, of San Jose. Each is charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

Popp was eBay’s senior manager of global intelligence, Stockwell was the company’s manager of global intelligence center (GIC), Zea was a contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst within the GIC, and Gilbert was a senior manager of special operations for eBay’s global security team.

Gilbert is also a former police captain.

Lelling said the Natick couple serves as editor and publisher for an online newsletter that covers ecommerce companies. According to prosecutors, members of eBay’s executive leadership team followed the newsletter and took issue with the content and anonymous comments under the stories.

In 2019, two members of the leadership team allegedly sent or forwarded text messages saying it was time to “take down” the newsletter’s editor. One of the messages said the group wanted to “crush this lady,” referring to the editor.

When asked if further charges could be filed against other executives, Lelling said “The investigaton is active and ongoing.” Two unnamed executive are included in the complaint that had roles above Baugh.

“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,” said Lelling.

The couple then received a host of deliveries aimed at intimidating them.

“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,” Lelling said.

On August 18 just after midnight, the eBay employees allegedly posted a classified ad on Craigslist claiming to be from the Natick couple inviting “singles, couples and swingers” to their house to part after 10 p.m. every night.

“People were encouraged to knock on the couple’s door, anytime day or night,” said Lelling.

All of the employees were fired by eBay following an investigation. Lelling said the company cooperated with investigators.

“For a while they succeeded, psychologically devastating these victims for weeks,” Lelling said. “The result as alleged in the complaint was a systematic campaign fueled by the resources of a Fortune 500 company to emotionally and psychologically terrorize this middle aged couple in Natick, with the goal of deterring them from writing bad things online about eBay.”

eBay of Pigs cyberinvasion

[High Plains Drifter 11186]

 

Gilbert is also a former police captain.

 

Burying the lede.

And somebody going to get paid.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13725]

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Former eBay director of global resiliency David Harville, 48, of New York City, was arrested Monday on the same charges

Why would someone in a senior mgmt role in a major web company get involved in attacking specific customers. It's a weird job area (global resiliency) so I don't fully understand the scope of someone in charge of this area. Perhaps it involved company online reputation but I would think that would involve mitigating unfair online comments and not mitigating the people themselves.

[Pato del Muerto 53452]

That’s going to be a rather large settlement. Crazy story. 

[TwiceHorn 32071]

6 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Why would someone in a senior mgmt role in a major web company get involved in attacking specific customers. It's a weird job area (global resiliency) so I don't fully understand the scope of someone in charge of this area. Perhaps it involved company online reputation but I would think that would involve mitigating unfair online comments and not mitigating the people themselves.

Very strange indeed.

[crash_davis 23468]

ebay is a $10B company. Why are they concerning themselves with what a couple is saying online about them? How much is this couple impacting their sales? 100k?

What a fucking stupid bunch of people.

Edited June 15, 2020 by crash_davis

[atomheartbevo 90636]

On 6/15/2020 at 11:37 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Why would someone in a senior mgmt role in a major web company get involved in attacking specific customers. It's a weird job area (global resiliency) so I don't fully understand the scope of someone in charge of this area. Perhaps it involved company online reputation but I would think that would involve mitigating unfair online comments and not mitigating the people themselves.

I did the ebay thing for several years as a side-gig back  around 15 years ago or so.  Like crash Davis said, they are a massive company, and I read plenty of those kinds of newsletters (you can make more money from telling people how to make money on ebay, than you can selling on ebay).  Granted, that audience is probably buying and selling a lot more than your typical eBayer, but still, their readership is probably not that high.  Plus, here in 2020, there's probably bloggers/YouTubers who have a larger audience.

That's an odd-as-hell fixation.

And some of those mentioned probably had really good salaries and job security.

[NeverMarryAStripper 22277]

So ebay needs a Global Intelligence Center with a Special Operations Team?  That really makes me want to give up all of my private information to google, facetime, and the like.  They must have their own fucking army and rendition center

[RDCanecutter 26871]

None of the alleged misdeeds are as outrageous as making all Buy It Now listings into Good Til Cancelled.

[Blotto 24011]

On 6/15/2020 at 11:41 AM, Pato del Muerto said:

That’s going to be a rather large settlement. Crazy story. 

Indeed. Am I crazy thinking this is a 8 figure settlement? I mean shit , we're talking about a $30 billion dollar market cap company doing some really shady shit. I doubt Ebay wants to deal with the PR fallout if the civil case details spill out into the press. Probably better to just stroke a check and be done with it. 

[Sbbruin 22142]

Read about this in the WSJ today.  Sounds like they just wanted to throw their weight around.  Kind of like how Trump engages on seemingly meaningless issues on Twitter.  Sorry, may have gone a little CR.  

 

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10 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

So ebay needs a Global Intelligence Center with a Special Operations Team?  That really makes me want to give up all of my private information to google, facetime, and the like.  They must have their own fucking army and rendition center

They pretty much all do have something like this.  eBay does plenty of targeted advertising out the ass.

I would assume that some of what these people would normally be covering would be the organized fraud stuff based on the organizational names, rather than harassing somebody pumping out a fucking newsletter for other people to think they are going to get rich.

[mulletpelini 5225]

On 6/15/2020 at 11:37 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Why would someone in a senior mgmt role in a major web company get involved in attacking specific customers.

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Stephanie Popp, 32, of San Jose; Stephanie Stockwell, 26, of Redwood City, Calif.; Veronica Zeak, 26

 

[Blotto 24011]

This is fucking unreal...

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Although federal authorities are not charging the two executives, court documents detail text messages and emails exchanged between the higher-ups regarding the company critics prior to and during the cyberstalking campaign. According to court documents, Executive 2 — which Bloomberg says is Wymer, the ex-head of communications — sent a text message to Executive 1 — identified as ex-CEO Wenig — telling him, "We are going to crush this lady." Later on Executive 1 sent Executive 2 a text saying, "Take her down."

 

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Neither Wymer nor Wenig are still with eBay. Wymer only served as eBay's PR chief for about nine months in 2019. Wenig announced he was stepping down from the CEO position in September 2019, and cited conflict with eBay's board of directors.

In a statement published to its website Monday, eBay said it became aware of the law enforcement investigation in August 2019 and cooperated fully. EBay says it conducted its own internal investigation, which found "no evidence" that Wenig played a role in the matter. 

 

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A number of considerations led to the surprise departure of former eBay  (EBAY) - CEO Devin Wenig, among them "inappropriate" conduct uncovered in an investigation of cyberstalking incidents involving senior employees, eBay said on Monday.  

 

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Former eBay CEO Devin Wenig walked away with a $57 million package last year, according to a company filing with the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission). Of that, $780,769 was salary and $40 million was classified as "other compensation."

Wenig left the company abruptly on September 24 under ambiguous circumstances. At the time, eBay Chairman of the Board Thomas Tierney cited "a number of considerations," and Wenig said in a Tweet he was "not on the same page" as the Board. (Tierney himself will be stepping down from the eBay Board in June where he's served as Director since 2003 and Chairman since 2015.)

Corporate America has lost its fucking mind. This douche was CEO for 4 years, investigations into the matter showed inappropriate conduct, and they still let him walk with $57 million dollars. The entire board should be removed for approving that shit. 

[crash_davis 23468]

It isn't called a Golden Parachute for nothing. C-level positions are like NFL coaching positions. Failed CEOs find other C-level gigs at other companies with no other qualification than just having had the C-level title. Once you have a C-level title, you are guaranteed $Millions. Everyone assumes that you are smart and talented to have attained that title. Shitty fired NFL coaches find themselves on NFL staffs year after year after year.

 

[Blotto 24011]

1 hour ago, crash_davis said:

It isn't called a Golden Parachute for nothing. C-level positions are like NFL coaching positions. Failed CEOs find other C-level gigs at other companies with no other qualification than just having had the C-level title. Once you have a C-level title, you are guaranteed $Millions. Everyone assumes that you are smart and talented to have attained that title. Shitty fired NFL coaches find themselves on NFL staffs year after year after year.

 

Yeah I get that, but this is slightly different than just incompetence. After being alerted by authorities in August, they start an internal investigation which turns up  "inappropriate conduct" and they part ways in September. $57 million is significant enough that most companies wouldn't part with it unless they feel that the alternative is worse.In this case it seems more like hush money. Will be interesting to see what else comes of this, but that board of directors should catch some heat for that. Should, but probably won't. 

[crash_davis 23468]

1 minute ago, Blotto said:

Yeah I get that, but this is slightly different than just incompetence. After being alerted by authorities in August, they start an internal investigation which turns up  "inappropriate conduct" and they part ways in September. $57 million is significant enough that most companies wouldn't part with it unless they feel that the alternative is worse.In this case it seems more like hush money. Will be interesting to see what else comes of this, but that board of directors should catch some heat for that. Should, but probably won't. 

Agreed but it's the wolves watching over other wolves. The BoD are themselves a bunch of CEOs. It's a nice club to get into.

[deadshank 24654]

What in the world is wrong with these people?  How does a group become so depraved?  
 

So many questions.

 

[Bevo 13870]

PayPal seems much more shady than EBay. I can just assume they will be next.