Two former eBay employees plead guilty Thursday to a harassment campaign against the publisher and the editor of a newsletter that was critical of the company, the Associated Press reported.
Former senior manager of global intelligence Stephanie Popp and former intelligence analyst Veronica Zea pleaded guilty after being involved in a harassment scheme that included sending live spiders, a funeral wreath, and a bloody Halloween pig mask to the couple’s home, the Associated Press reported. Popp and Zea were charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. Their sentencing is scheduled to take place in February. (RELATED: EBay Bans Sales Of All Face Masks And Hand Sanitizers Amid Coronavirus Outbreak)
Former eBay employees plead guilty for their part in ‘aggressive’ cyberstalking campaign against couple https://t.co/pJSpSZtDbg
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Five other former eBay employees were involved in the harassment campaign, three of whom are expected to plead guilty to charges later in October, according to the report.
The harassment campaign began after the couple’s newsletter published an article about eBay’s lawsuit against Amazon accusing them of poaching its sellers, investigators said. In addition to the anonymous deliveries sent to the couple’s home, they also sent pornographic magazines with the husband’s name on it to the neighbors, posted the couple’s address online, and advertised yard sales and other events, encouraging people to knock on the door if the couple wasn’t outside.
The group had also made a plan to break into the couple’s garage and install a GPS tracker on their car, officials said according to the Associated Press.