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The US Justice Department has charged eBay with stalking, witness tampering and obstruction of justice in a rare criminal case against a well-known Silicon Valley company.
The charges, which will be dropped under a deferred prosecution agreement if eBay maintains a good record for the next three years, stem from actions taken by the company in 2019 to undermine and silence the writers of an e-commerce newsletter that was mildly critical of some of its behaviour. The intimidation efforts included various forms of cyberstalking and harassment that were continuing when the perpetrators were arrested.
eBay has appointed an independent compliance expert to assist in its review. Credit: iStock
In its agreement with the government, eBay will engage an independent corporate compliance monitor. It also agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $US3 million ($4.5 million), the maximum fine for its six criminal offences. The government will not move ahead with the case unless the company violates the agreement.
Although the money is inconsequential for a company that had more than $US5 billion cash on hand in its most recent quarter, the notoriety is not.
“EBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct,” said Joshua S. Levy, the acting attorney general. “The company’s employees and contractors involved in this campaign put the victims through pure hell, in a petrifying campaign aimed at silencing their reporting and protecting the eBay brand.”
David and Ina Steiner, writers and publishers of a news site and blog called EcommerceBytes, live in Natick, Massachusetts; eBay is based in San Jose, California. During the course of the harassment campaign, eBay security team members flew to Boston to accelerate their activities against the couple in person. When they were caught, they began a cover-up and destroyed incriminating messages.
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The forms of harassment included: threatening direct messages over Twitter, the social media platform that is now called X; attempts to install a GPS device on the Steiners’ car; posting ads for fictitious sexual events at the Steiners’ house; and sending anonymous and scary items such as a bloody pig’s mask to the couple’s home.
A 24-page document detailing the charges that was released late this week broadens the number of eBay executives in the case. In earlier documents, only two executives were mentioned — the chief executive and the chief communications officer. Now there is a third executive, identified as eBay’s senior vice president for global operations.
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