Two former eBay executives were sentenced to prison Thursday after they spearheaded a harassment campaign against customers in Natick, Massachusetts, according to a statement released Thursday from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
U.S. District Judge Patti Saris sentenced eBay’s former head of global security, James Baugh, to 57 months in prison and two years of supervised release, according to the DOJ’s statement. Judge Saris sentenced the company’s former director of global resiliency, David Harville, to two years in prison and two years of supervised release, the release continued. Both men pleaded guilty to cyberstalking-related charges, Reuters reported.
Baugh and Harville will also need to pay a $40,000 and $20,000 fine, respectively, according to Reuters. Baugh is expected to begin his sentence in early December, the Boston Globe noted. (RELATED: Journalist Claims Large Bank Is Locking Some Customers Out Of Accounts Forever)
During the summer of 2019, Harville, Baugh and five other employees who also pleaded guilty partook in a harassment scheme against David and Ina Steiner, who ran a newsletter called EcommerceBytes, Reuters reported. The eBay executives were “frustrated” with site’s content and comments in regards to how they portrayed the company, according to the DOJ’s statement.
A former eBay executive was sentenced to 57 months in prison for running what the judge called an extensive harassment campaign fueled by eBay’s ‘toxic culture’ that involved sending a couple cockroaches, a funeral wreath and a bloody Halloween pig mask https://t.co/DJBhsMIWnB pic.twitter.com/BjmtXk2Wqp
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) September 29, 2022
The harassment campaign included stalking and surveilling the Natick couple; placing a GPS inside their vehicle; and sending them a fetal pig, a funeral wreath, a book on surviving the death of a spouse, and live insects, according to the DOJ’s statement.
“Both men demonstrated a clear contempt for the law when they weaponized eBay’s security department to engage in an incredibly disturbing pattern of retaliatory harassment and intimidation to torment this couple, who, thankfully, did not let their fear silence them,” Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division Joseph R. Bonavolonta stated, according to the DOJ’s statement.
The Steiners are suing the former executives, the eBay company and its former chief executive, Devin Wenig, the Boston Globe reported.