A Massachusetts couple who sued eBay, Inc. and several ex-officers of the company in late July spoke out Tuesday morning detailing the alleged harassment campaign against them that they say was carried out by the online giant.
Ina and David Steiner of Natick, Massachusetts, told ABC News Good Morning America that the intimidation started when someone spray-painted graffiti on their fence in 2019.
It was really disturbing. The Steiners claim the intimidation orchestrated for an attempt to stifle their reporting at the direction of eBay's higher-ups relentless escalated in an attempt to halt their reporting.
I started getting harassed online through Twitter, through unwanted e-mail subscriptions And these were really disturbing e-mails, Ina said.
A shop in Arizona put me on the phone when they couldn't deliver the wet specimen which we ordered. Not knowing what was a wet specimen, I asked her. She added it was an embalmed pig fetus, David said.
The Steiners states that as part of the systematic campaign to torture them, employees of the nearly $47 - billion-dollar company mailed threatening items to their home including insects, a mask identified by Steiners' Attorney Rosemary Scapicchio from the horror movie Saw, a book on surviving the loss of a spouse and a funeral wreath.
In addition, the couple told Good Morning America that neighbors had received porn directed to David and eBay employees had attempted to place a tracking device on their car.
The Globe reported that the individuals went as far as to tail the Steiners in their rented cars after checking into the Boston Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
What is the right reason behind eBay? No, Ina replied. It was a psychopath. Und the depravity, the messages if you read the language I would have never thought it was a company in a million years.
We still want to know why, she said.
In a statement to FOX Business, EBay called the misconduct of former employees wrong.
We will do what is fair and appropriate to try to address what Steiners went through, the company said in the statement. The events from 2019 should never have happened, and as eBay expressed to the Steiners, we are very sorry for what they endured. As noted by the U.S. Attorney's Office when this matter first came to light, eBay cooperated fully with the government investigation, noting that 'eBay was extremely cooperative with the investigation in helping state and federal authorities figure out what had happened and collect evidence of the crime.
Six federal prosecutors charged eBay employees and a contractor with cyberstalking.
Daniel Phillip Cooke, a retired police captain and former security supervisor at eBay, was sentenced to 18 months behind bars for what U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs called really abominable actions last month (http://www.ebay.com/)
Cooke was one of numerous other eBay employees that plead guilty in the case in addition to the former employee receiving the money.
Two maintain their innocence and are awaiting trial.
According to The Globe, the spray-painting incident was instigated by James Baugh who at the time was the head of eBay's Global security and resilience unit.
Although the complaint said that the campaign of terror was sparked by complaints from then-eBay CEO Devin Wenig to communications lead Steve Wymer and then to Baugh, eBay's own investigation into the matter found that while Wenig's communications were inappropriate there was no evidence that he knew in advance about or authorized the actions that were later directed towards the blogger and her husband.
Wenig, named as a defendant in the suit, stepped down in September 2019 from his post and eBay has apologized to Steiners.
The Steiners seek legal fees, damages and relief in an amount determined by jury.