eBay Crime Scandal: Death Squad, Stalking, and more
In August 2019, two Massachusetts bloggers found themselves in a situation that sounds less like a corporate dispute and more like a psychological thriller.
Live cockroaches arrived at their home.
So did spiders, a bloody pig mask, a funeral wreath and a book about surviving the death of a spouse.
Strangers began appearing at their door after fake online advertisements reportedly invited people to yard sales and even sexual encounters at the couple’s home.
A pornography subscription was taken out in one victim’s name and sent to neighbors.
Then people connected to one of the world’s largest online marketplaces allegedly flew across the country, followed the couple in rental cars and contemplated placing a GPS tracker on their vehicle.
The victims were Ina and David Steiner, publishers of EcommerceBytes, a small trade publication covering online marketplaces and the businesses that depend on them.
The company at the center of the scandal was eBay.
The extraordinary campaign ultimately resulted in federal criminal convictions, prison sentences, a deferred prosecution agreement with eBay and a massive civil settlement.
But the most disturbing part of the story may not be what a handful of security employees did.
It is how a corporate culture apparently reached the point where criticism from two bloggers could be treated as a threat requiring retaliation.
And it raises an uncomfortable question:
When employees commit outrageous acts while trying to satisfy the desires of senior management, where does individual misconduct end and corporate responsibility begin?
The Bloggers Who Irritated a Multibillion-Dollar Company
Ina and David Steiner were hardly conventional enemies of corporate America.
They had been writing about online commerce since 1999, originally publishing under the name AuctionBytes before eventually becoming EcommerceBytes.
Their publication covered subjects important to online sellers: marketplace policies, payment systems, shipping, postage and companies such as Amazon, PayPal and eBay.
That inevitably meant criticizing those companies from time to time.
Normally, that is how journalism works.
But according to the transcript, criticism of eBay increasingly became an obsession inside parts of the company.
The situation unfolded during a particularly stressful period for eBay’s leadership.
In 2019, activist hedge fund Elliott Management acquired a stake in the company and began pushing for changes. The pressure reportedly included questions about management and corporate spending.
CEO Devin Wenig was operating in an environment in which his own position could be threatened.
Against that backdrop, articles published by Ina Steiner apparently became more than an irritation.
They became personal.
In April 2019, Steiner wrote about Wenig’s compensation, reporting that his approximately $18 million compensation was roughly 152 times what the average eBay employee earned.
According to communications described in the transcript, Wenig forwarded the article to communications executive Steve Wymer.
Wymer’s response was chilling:
“We are going to crush this lady.”
The rhetoric allegedly continued.
When Steiner published another critical article, Wenig reportedly wrote that her “day is coming” and suggested that sometimes someone needed to be made an example.
Later, following another article, Wenig reportedly wrote:
“If we are ever going to take her down, now is the time.”
Wymer allegedly responded:
“On it.”
Other messages referenced wanting Steiner “done,” “burned down” and ultimately reduced to “ashes.”
There is an enormous difference, of course, between angry corporate rhetoric and ordering criminal conduct.
That distinction became central to the question of responsibility.
But corporate culture is communicated not only through formal instructions. It is also communicated through what leaders praise, condemn, reward and repeatedly demand.
And somewhere beneath eBay’s executive suite was a security operation apparently willing to translate corporate anger into action.
Enter eBay’s Security Division
The transcript describes eBay’s global security and resiliency operation as being led by Jim Baugh, a former security and intelligence professional.
His management style, according to accounts described in the transcript, was anything but conventional.
Employees reportedly referred to Baugh and his deputy as “mom and dad.” Staff meetings involved movie clips emphasizing loyalty, secrecy and humiliation. One incident allegedly involved employees’ personal belongings being placed into trash bags to make a point about workplace privacy.
Another involved a knife being stabbed into an office chair and left there as a reminder about vigilance.
Employees could reportedly be fired for seemingly trivial offenses.
The culture described was insular, theatrical and intensely loyal.
And eBay’s critics were being monitored.
According to the transcript, Baugh’s team was instructed to watch EcommerceBytes closely and report articles involving eBay.
The Steiners increasingly became viewed not merely as journalists writing stories the company disliked, but as adversaries.
Eventually, the rhetoric allegedly turned into action.
“Whatever It Takes”
The harassment campaign described in the criminal cases was astonishing in its scope.
One component involved anonymous threatening messages.
Another involved signing the Steiners up for hundreds of unwanted services and mailing lists.
Then came the packages.
Live cockroaches.
Live spiders.
A fetal pig.
A bloody pig mask.
A funeral wreath.
A book concerning the death of a spouse.
The campaign also spilled into the Steiners’ community. Fake online advertisements allegedly directed strangers to their house for supposed events.
The objective appears to have been psychological terror.
According to the transcript, the Steiners became so frightened that they took extraordinary precautions inside their own home.
They reportedly placed baking sheets near doors so they would hear an intruder entering.
They slept in separate rooms so that if one person were attacked, the other might still be able to call police.
David Steiner became so overwhelmed that he reportedly collapsed outside a police station.
This was no longer corporate public relations.
It was fear.
The “White Knight” Strategy
Perhaps the most bizarre part of the operation was what members of the security team allegedly called the “white knight” strategy.
The concept was remarkably cynical.
First, someone would secretly terrorize the Steiners.
Then eBay representatives would appear as concerned corporate employees offering assistance.
The harassment could then stop.
The theory apparently was that the Steiners would become grateful to eBay and develop a more favorable relationship with the company.
In other words, manufacture the crisis and then become the hero who solves it.
If accurately characterized, the strategy reveals something important about the mentality behind the operation.
This was not merely uncontrolled anger.
It involved planning.
The harassment was allegedly intended to manipulate the victims’ behavior and ultimately influence what they published about eBay.
And the operation did not remain online.
The Harassment Goes Interstate
Members of the security operation traveled from California to Massachusetts.
According to the transcript, they followed the Steiners in rental vehicles and discussed placing a GPS tracker on their car.
When the vehicle was inaccessible inside the garage, members of the group allegedly considered breaking in.
Their operational security was remarkably poor.
Expenses were reportedly placed on corporate credit cards.
Rental vehicles could be traced.
Prepaid cards purchased for parts of the operation were traced back to a store near eBay’s California headquarters.
Surveillance video reportedly helped investigators identify a participant.
When local police began investigating, members of the group allegedly attempted to conceal what they had done and create alternative suspects.
The same people who had access to sophisticated corporate security resources had created a trail leading investigators back toward eBay.
The harassment operation was unraveling.
Federal Prosecutors Step In
The consequences were substantial.
Five defendants reached plea agreements without being indicted, according to the transcript.
Baugh and another security executive, David Harville, were eventually indicted in November 2020 on 15 counts.
The charges included conspiracy to commit stalking, stalking through interstate travel, stalking through facilities of interstate commerce, witness tampering and destruction of evidence.
The federal interstate stalking charges reflected the nature of the operation.
Some conduct involved physically traveling across state lines.
Other conduct used communications infrastructure such as phones, internet services, mail and social media.
The cover-up created additional criminal exposure.
Members of the operation were accused of lying to investigators and attempting to destroy electronic communications concerning the scheme.
Baugh eventually pleaded guilty and received a 57-month prison sentence.
Harville received 24 months.
Other participants received their own sentences.
Yet one question remained:
What about the people at the top?
How High Did Responsibility Go?
This is where the story becomes more complicated.
The transcript does not establish that eBay’s top executives ordered employees to send cockroaches, stalk the Steiners or install a GPS tracker.
Indeed, that distinction matters.
But the communications attributed to senior executives created an uncomfortable backdrop.
“Crush this lady.”
“Take her down.”
“I want her done.”
“Whatever it takes.”
“Ashes.”
Those are not instructions to commit a particular crime.
But when such language travels downward through a corporate hierarchy to a security operation charged with dealing with perceived threats, questions about foreseeable consequences become unavoidable.
Baugh’s attorney raised precisely that issue at sentencing, according to the transcript.
His argument was essentially that senior executives were the “but for” cause of the fixation on the Steiners.
Without the obsession at the top, he argued, there would have been no reason for the security operation to target the couple.
That does not necessarily establish criminal liability for executives.
But criminal responsibility and corporate responsibility are not identical.
And the Steiners had another avenue available.
Civil court.
The Steiners Fight Back
In July 2021, Ina and David Steiner filed a federal civil lawsuit against eBay and several individuals.
Their claims reflected the extraordinary breadth of what had happened.
They alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, negligent hiring, negligent supervision and negligent retention.
They also asserted claims involving civil rights, defamation, trespass, false imprisonment and civil conspiracy.
The negligence claims presented a particularly important corporate governance question.
Even if senior management never ordered the criminal conduct, should eBay have known what was happening inside its own security operation?
Did it hire appropriate people?
Did it adequately supervise them?
Were warning signs ignored?
Should someone have intervened earlier?
These questions matter because corporations can act only through human beings.
When misconduct occurs inside a company, simply identifying the employee who physically carried it out does not necessarily answer whether the institution bears responsibility.
eBay Avoids a Criminal Conviction
The company itself was not criminally convicted.
But in January 2024, eBay entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty.
The money did not compensate the Steiners. It went to the U.S. Treasury.
The Steiners’ compensation would have to come through their civil litigation.
That case was heading toward trial.
And the prospect of a public trial presented substantial risk.
A jury could hear the internal communications.
Former employees could testify.
Senior executives could be questioned.
The company’s corporate culture could be examined in open court.
Most significantly, Baugh reportedly agreed to waive his Fifth Amendment rights and testify.
The man who had been at the center of the security operation could potentially become a key witness against eBay and former executives.
At that point, the risk calculation changed dramatically.
A $48.55 Million Settlement
According to the transcript, the parties ultimately dismissed the civil case after reaching a substantial settlement.
eBay agreed to pay the Steiners $46 million.
Former CEO Devin Wenig agreed to contribute another $2 million.
Former executive Wendy Jones would pay $500,000.
Steve Wymer would contribute $50,000.
That brought the direct payments described in the transcript to approximately $48.55 million.
There were also charitable contributions.
eBay agreed to make a $6 million charitable contribution, while Wenig reportedly agreed to another $1 million donation to an organization dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights in Ina Steiner’s name.
The settlement avoided the spectacle and uncertainty of a trial.
But it also meant there would be no jury verdict determining precisely how responsibility should have been distributed among the corporation, its senior executives and the security personnel who carried out the operation.
The People at the Top Landed Differently
The aftermath presents one of the most striking contrasts in the entire story.
Baugh went to prison.
Lower-level participants suffered criminal convictions and serious career consequences.
Meanwhile, according to the transcript, Wenig resigned from eBay in September 2019 with a severance package reportedly worth approximately $57 million.
The transcript states that eBay’s board possessed contractual authority that potentially could have been used to claw back compensation for wrongdoing, but did not do so.
Wenig subsequently returned to corporate life.
Wymer was fired but later became CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley.
Jones reportedly retired with compensation worth more than $16 million.
The contrast is difficult to ignore.
People who physically carried out the scheme faced prison, probation and damaged careers.
Those at higher levels faced significant reputational and financial consequences, but emerged very differently.
That does not mean the legal system necessarily treated them improperly. Criminal liability requires evidence proving specific elements, including the required mental state.
But the outcome illustrates an enduring problem in organizational misconduct:
The person who executes an improper objective often leaves the clearest evidence, while the person who creates the pressure may leave only words, expectations and ambiguity.
The Danger of “Just Get It Done”
This may be the most important lesson from the eBay scandal.
Corporate misconduct rarely begins with an executive writing:
“Please commit a federal crime.”
It can begin with something much more ordinary.
Fix this problem.
Make this person stop.
Handle it.
I don’t want excuses.
Do whatever it takes.
When executives communicate relentless demands without defining ethical boundaries, employees further down the organization may begin filling in the blanks.
That does not absolve the employees.
The eBay personnel who participated in the harassment were responsible for their own conduct.
But leadership also shapes the environment in which decisions are made.
If employees believe advancement depends upon demonstrating loyalty, aggression and willingness to accomplish objectives regardless of method, “whatever it takes” can become dangerous.
And when the department receiving that message is corporate security, the consequences can be catastrophic.
Two Bloggers Versus a Corporate Giant
Perhaps the most remarkable part of the story is that the Steiners continued publishing.
The harassment was apparently intended to intimidate them.
It failed.
EcommerceBytes survived.
The publication continued covering eBay and the broader online marketplace industry.
That makes the scandal about more than corporate misconduct.
It is also a story about the imbalance of power between large institutions and individuals who criticize them.
eBay had enormous financial resources.
It had lawyers, communications professionals, security personnel and executives earning millions of dollars.
The Steiners had a trade publication.
Yet criticism from that publication apparently became important enough inside eBay to produce extraordinary hostility.
That should concern anyone who values independent journalism.
The First Amendment primarily restrains government action, but the broader value of free expression can also be threatened when private power is used to frighten critics into silence.
The Steiners’ civil case therefore represented something larger than compensation for unwanted packages and surveillance.
It concerned the ability to criticize powerful institutions without fearing retaliation.
“People Are Basically Good”
There is one final irony.
According to the transcript, eBay’s corporate motto remained:
“People are basically good.”
Perhaps they are.
But corporations cannot rely upon slogans to keep them that way.
Organizations need leadership willing to tolerate criticism, compliance systems capable of stopping misconduct and executives who understand that corporate power comes with responsibility.
The eBay harassment scandal demonstrates what can happen when criticism becomes personal, loyalty becomes more important than judgment and employees convince themselves they are protecting the company by attacking its critics.
A multibillion-dollar corporation became obsessed with two bloggers.
Employees crossed state lines.
People were stalked.
Evidence was allegedly destroyed.
Careers ended.
People went to prison.
The company paid millions to federal authorities and tens of millions more to the victims.
And all of it appears to have grown from something that healthy organizations encounter every day:
Someone said something about the company that its leaders didn’t like.
The lesson for corporate America is not complicated.
Criticism is not an existential threat.
A negative article is not an enemy attack.
And the moment leaders begin demanding that critics be “crushed,” “taken down” or reduced to “ashes,” someone inside the organization needs the courage to say no.
Because sometimes the greatest threat to a company’s reputation isn’t the critic writing about it.
It’s what the company does trying to silence the critic.
