E-commerce website eBay and a group of its former executives will pay roughly $56 million to settle a lawsuit, six years after the company engaged in a campaign to physically and psychologically torment a journalist couple, hoping to stop them from posting critical pieces. Back in 2019, a group of top eBay executives set up a deranged scheme to torment Ina and David Steiner, a couple who penned critical pieces about eBay’s business practices on their news site EcommerceBytes. Led by eBay’s head of security, James Baugh, the executives cyberstalked the couple, sending threats, and also surveilled the couple in real life and conspired to plant a GPS tracking device. The torment also included mailing them live spiders and cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a copy of a book called “Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Spouse,” and a bloody pig mask. The couple brought legal action against the executives in 2021. Seven employees have since pleaded guilty, and several of them, including Baugh, were sentenced to jail time. In 2024, eBay was also criminally charged and fined $3 million.
But several high-ranking executives have maintained their innocence. Former CEO Devin Wenig, who said that “now is the time” to take down Ina Steiner, told the Boston Globe that the harassment campaign was done without his knowledge. Also, per communications revealed in the lawsuit, former senior vice president of global operations Wendy Jones told Baugh to deal with the couple “off the radar” without sharing the details, while ex-communications chief Steve Wymer referred to Ina Steiner as “a biased troll who needs to get BURNED DOWN.”
