A former eBay Inc. (EBAY.O) security officer plans to plead guilty to federal charges that he orchestrated a cyberstalking operation against a Massachusetts couple whose online newsletter was perceived as critical of the e-commerce giant.
eBay’s former senior director of safety and security, James Baugh, was in Boston awaiting trial with another ex-executive accused of harassing the couple via Twitter and with unsettling items such as a bloody Halloween pig costume and live cockroaches.
A federal court scheduled a hearing for Baugh to plead guilty instead on April 25 at the request of his counsel. His co-defendant, David Harville, eBay’s former director of global resiliency, will stand trial on May 31.
Baugh’s lawyer, William Fick, declined to comment.
Baugh is one of seven former eBay employees accused of harassing the married pair behind the EcommerceBytes newsletter in Natick, Massachusetts, in 2020.
According to authorities and a lawsuit brought by David and Ina Steiner against eBay, they did so after two key officials, including former Chief Executive Officer Devin Wenig, voiced dissatisfaction with the newsletter.
The Steiners began receiving anonymous, abusive private comments on Twitter in August 2019, according to prosecutors, as well as frightening deliveries to their home that included fly larvae, spiders, and a funeral wreath.
Prosecutors claim that Baugh planned the threatening messages and deliveries with his employees and contractors, and that he even traveled to Massachusetts with some of them to spy on the couple.
Baugh and others deleted messages from their social media accounts after learning that Natick police were investigating, and he lied to eBay investigators by denying that its employees were involved, according to prosecutors.
Five other former eBay employees have also entered guilty pleas. Wenig was not charged and has stated that he was unaware of the plot. The couple and eBay are in settlement talks, according to eBay.
eBay Inc., based in San Jose, California, is an American global e-commerce organization that enables consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. Pierre Omidyar launched eBay in 1995, and it quickly became a renowned dot-com success story. As of 2019, eBay is a multibillion-dollar company with operations in around 32 countries.
The corporation runs the eBay website, which is an online auction and shopping platform where people and businesses from all over the world can buy and sell a wide range of goods and services. Buyers can access the site for free, but sellers must pay a price to list products after a certain amount of free listings have been used, as well as an additional or separate fee when those items are sold.
