eBay Scandal: Former Employees Charged In ‘Aggressive’ Cyberstalking Scheme

Six former eBay employees on Monday were charged for leading a cyberstalking campaign against a Massachusetts couple. The couple, residents of the greater Boston area, were the editor and publisher of a newsletter that eBay executives had deemed critical of the company.

As part of this campaign, the employees conducted covert surveillance on the couple and subjected them to macabre and bizarre harassment tactics. According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s District of Massachusetts, these included sending them “a box of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath and a bloody pig mask.”

James Baugh, 45, eBay’s former Senior Director of Safety & Security, and David Harville, 48, former Director of Global Resiliency, were arrested on Monday in San Jose and New York City, respectively, and charged by criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

The following other employees were also charged in an Information: Stephanie Popp, 32, eBay’s former Senior Manager of Global Intelligence; Stephanie Stockwell, 26, the former manager of eBay’s Global Intelligence Center; Veronica Zea, 26, a former contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst; and Brian Gilbert, 51, a former Senior Manager of Special Operations for the company’s Global Security Team. All are set to appear in Boston federal court on charges of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

The newsletter run by the targeted couple covers online retail companies. In August 2019, the newsletter included a story about litigation involving eBay. In response, leadership within the company sent messages saying that the company should “take down” the couple.

This allegedly spurred the six employees charged in the case to execute their harassment campaign. In addition to the items mentioned previously, the also had anonymous packages sent to the couple that included pornography and a book about coping with the loss of a spouse.