6 eBay Executives And Employees Charged With Sending Threats, Bloody Pig Mask To Natick Couple

[Mrs. Overall]

Source: CBS

Six former eBay executives and employees are facing federal charges after they allegedly led a cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple they believed was critical of the company in an online ecommerce newsletter.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said the eBay employees’ harassment included sending the couple “disturbing deliveries” that included a bloody pig mask, a box of live cockroaches, and a funeral wreath. The employees also allegedly sent anonymous threatening messages and traveled to Massachusetts to conduct “covert surveillance” of the victims.

“It was a determined, systematic effort of senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a couple in Natick, all because they published content company executives didn’t like,” said Lelling. James Baugh, 45, of San Jose, California, eBay’s former director of safety and security and former eBay director of global resiliency David Harville, 48, of New York City, were among the six charged Monday. Also charged were Stephanie Popp, 32, of San Jose; Stephanie Stockwell, 26, of Redwood City, Calif.; Veronica Zeak, 26, of San Jose; and Brian Gilbert, 51, of San Jose. Each is charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

“These deliveries included fly larvae and live spiders, a box of live cockroaches, a sympathy wreath on the occasion of the death of a loved one, a book of advice on how to survive the death of a spouse, pornography mailed to their next door neighbors but in the couple’s names, Halloween masks featuring the face of the bloody pig, and the pig fetus which was ordered, but after an inquiry by the supplier, thankfully, wasn’t ever sent,” Lelling said.

Read more: https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/06/15/ebay-employees-arrested-u-s-attorney-andrew-lelling-cyberstalking/

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. Company policies and profit above all

Creates the toxic work environment by promoting sociopathy.

Profit needs to be put under the well being of people and the planet. If executives,and CEOs refuse to put people first for real take thier corporate charter and destroy it.

[RKP5637]

2. Incredible!!! n/t

[Beakybird]

3. This is OMG so horrible and outlandish

[Mike 03]

4. That's some sick shit

They should also be charged with cruelty to animals. And ordered to undergo psych evaluations.

[Delphinus]

28. You said it!

[bucolic_frolic]

5. New meaning to the term 'throttled'

Buyers have gamed the system. I got shaken down this week. Sellers aren't always on the up and up. I got a substitute part this week.

People laugh and ridicule me - lightly - because I don't use Amazon and proclaim the glory days of the internet behind us.

So this group of tech giant munchkins have reaffirmed my belief that bricks and mortar ain't dead.

The tactics read like they were invented in Midsomer Murders.

Interesting that the men were older, and women a generation younger.

[appalachiablue]

8. Well said, all of that and then some. I also noticed

the age difference between the men and women. 'Not nice people,' ya think. Whoa.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Was it 'impress the secretaries with threats against the customers'? Machismo lives!!

And what a defense strategy!

"I was just trying to impress the ladies, Your Honor!"

[Sapient Donkey]

11. It's risky to be a small seller on ebay (and probably amazon)

The buyer just has to say the item wasn't as described to get a refund. Sure they are supposed to send it back, but nothing prevents them from sending back a brick. I stopped selling stuff on there because it was too stressful. Large sellers might be able to absorb those losses, but small sellers can't handle it.

[matt819]

18. Agreed

Not only that, but I just can't buy assertions that people can earn in the 6 figures on Amazon.

I was an Amazon seller for just over two years. After the monthly and per item fees, I never made any money. Pricing is a race to the bottom, and if Amazon carries the product there is no way I can match the price, especially with Prime. I canceled my account last year and see no reason to reconsider.

[Miguelito Loveless]

6. Any corporation running its own spy agency

and dirty tricks department should have its corporate charter revoked, and the entire comp[any disbanded.

[ancianita]

15. Snowden revealed how much of the US state surveillance is in service of corporations, so it's not

as if corporate surveillance hasn't been around for a long time. eBay, a Fortune 500 company, and is in good company when it comes to surveillance.

[2naSalit]

24. +1

[erronis]

33. Any for-profit company that doesn't spy on its competitors, customers is not fulfilling its

obligations to the shareholders (if it is a C-Corp).

Maybe my statement is a bit too broadly-painted, but this has been the excuse of the C-suites to cover their ruthless tactics.

It's the bottom line.
The quarter's results.
The yearly results.
The return-on-investment.

Rarely does a publicly-traded company talk about "doing good" for people/world/customers.

[barbtries]

7. wow.

i'm at a loss for words. i'm supposing that each of these suspects are educated professionals?

hard to process.

[erronis]

26. Educated? perhaps. Professional? in some sense. Ethical? NO. Problem with business is that it wants

the first two: educated (even with fake credentials) and professional (whatever that means.)

Business aka capitalism doesn't want ethics. In fact it gives you demerits if you display ethics.

Harvard and many other institutions have built up their tidy endowments by bestowing MBAs for courses totally devoid of ethics. Same can probably be said for many other segments including, unfortunately, the medical profession. The ultimate example of throwing out ethics is the current legal and law-enforcement "professions".

Until we get back to realizing that what we're dealing with are people with real lives, no matter which side of the desk you are sitting; until we treat each other as equal humans, we will continue to fail. And our society and world will fail.

[barbtries]

30. so true.

i've often pondered how it is that these people can be comfortable siphoning off the wealth of the nation on the backs of poor and struggling people. How they square their boundless greed with the reality of poverty and the wealth gap widening to an unsustainable level. Why corporate america values the "shareholder" more than the people actually doing the work. I have more or less concluded that their education contributed to their lack of conscience, that by some twisted measure they feel they are fulfilling their role in this respect.

Not limited to the US I'm sure, but whew, we are one sick nation.

[erronis]

34. Agree. I've wondered about how they can feel like they can steal the nation/world's wealth

without feeling some sense of guilt.

They are also in survival mode. They think their world is threatened by an imminent (rapture/non-white/non-xian/youthful/liberal) onslaught.

They head towards their bunkers. If in the top 0.01% perhaps in New Zealand. Poorer ones (top 0.1%) in underground cellars in Idaho/etc.. The really lower-class upper-class (top 1%) just dig a hole under their multi-million mansion in Malibu and stock it with plenty of liquor/drugs/etc.)

[Sapient Donkey]

10. Well, that's pretty damn insane.

[frazzled]

12. This is beyond

My “I Can’t Even Meter” just went over the limit.

[snort]

13. Let me guess

Trumpers?

[Kali]

14. ...

[Canoe52]

16. What the holy fuck...

[Lulu KC]

19. ugh

Things I wish I hadn't read. And yet, fascinating.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

20. Rethugs say corporations are people. Lock eBay's ass up.

Reading this, we can safely wager this warped thinking is ingrained in their corporate culture......

Makes me think of stuff we read about regarding the Mafia.

[NonPC]

21. Were They Fired or Promoted???

Didn't read if eBay fired them or promoted them. Just saying....

[barbtries]

31. they've all been fired

now that they're under criminal apprehension.

[OnlinePoker]

22. So, eBay is now Scientology? n/t

[whopis01]

23. I wish I could find what was written in the newsletter

It must have been pretty accurate to inspire that kind of attack.

[RhodeIslandOne]

25. Imagine having the time to do this?

"Executives" have SO MUCH WORK YOU PEONS COULD NEVER COMPREHEND!!!!

[FM123]

27. And one of them (Brian Gilbert) was a former police captain.

Did he not know that what he and his co-horts were doing was a federal crime....

[MarcA]

29. Possibly didn't care. When you don't have to be accountable for

your actions it's a feature not a glitch. Notice one of the others had been in charge
of safety and security. What better position could there be for an authoritarian.

[cate94]

32. Fly larvae

Sounds like maggots from MAGAts. What horrible people.