eBay to Pay $55.7 Million in Cyberstalking Settlement
eBay Inc. and three former senior executives have agreed to pay approximately $55.7 million to settle a civil lawsuit stemming from a grotesque 2019 harassment campaign that targeted a Massachusetts couple who run an e-commerce news website. The landmark settlement, announced July 27 and dismissed by a federal judge on July 28, resolves more than six years of litigation that exposed a stunning abuse of corporate power.
The victims, David and Ina Steiner, co-founders of the newsletter EcommerceBytes, were subjected to a coordinated campaign of intimidation — including deliveries of live cockroaches and spiders, a preserved fetal pig, a funeral wreath, and a bloody pig Halloween mask to their home — after they published critical coverage of eBay’s former CEO.
The Harassment Campaign
The ordeal began in August 2019 after Ina Steiner published an article titled “eBay CEO Devin Wenig Earns 152 Times That of Employees,” according to an FBI affidavit cited by Ars Technica. What followed was a weeks-long campaign that escalated from threatening social media messages to anonymous deliveries designed to instill terror.
Former eBay security executive James Baugh, who pleaded guilty and received a 57-month prison sentence as the “ringleader,” orchestrated the scheme. The campaign included sending pornographic magazines addressed to David Steiner to a neighbor’s home, attempting to install a GPS tracking device on the couple’s vehicle, and dispatching macabre packages that the Associated Press described as targeting the couple with “bizarre anonymous deliveries.”
“I could not conceive that a company I had been covering for the past two decades had tried to terrorize us into stopping our reporting,” Ina Steiner told the AP.
The Settlement Breakdown
The $55.7 million package includes $48.7 million in direct compensation to the Steiners and $7 million in charitable commitments, according to the press release from Scalli Murphy Law, the firm representing the couple.
The compensation is funded by:
- eBay Inc.: $46.15 million
- Former CEO Devin Wenig: $2 million (plus $1 million to a First Amendment charity in Ina Steiner’s name)
- Former SVP Wendy Jones: $500,000
- Former CCO Steve Wymer: $50,000
eBay will contribute an additional $6 million to various nonprofit organizations, bringing the total charitable component to $7 million.
Notably, the settlement contains no confidentiality provision, allowing the Steiners to speak freely about the case — a condition they insisted upon as journalists and as victims seeking to prevent similar abuses.
“David and I were on the same page that this settlement should and must be made public — as victims who want to prevent something like this from ever happening to anyone else, and as reporters who believe in transparency,” Ina Steiner said in a statement. “We hope that this case will serve as a deterrent.”
Criminal Accountability
Seven former eBay employees and one contractor pleaded guilty to federal charges including conspiracy and cyberstalking. Prison sentences ranged from 57 months for Baugh to 12 months for Stephanie Popp, with others receiving home confinement or time served, as Ars Technica reported.
In 2024, eBay itself paid a $3 million criminal fine under a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, admitting to the misconduct.
However, the three former executives named in the civil suit — Wenig, Wymer, and Jones — were not criminally charged. The lawsuit alleged they gave employees “carte blanche authority” to silence the Steiners, with internal communications revealing disturbing statements. According to court records cited in the lawsuit, Wymer allegedly said, “I want to see ashes. As long as it takes. Whatever it takes.” Wenig was accused of telling Wymer to “take her down.”
Wenig has consistently denied knowledge of the campaign. In a statement, he said: “The harassment was deliberately done in secret and without my knowledge, as established by an independent law firm review, a federal probe, and the sworn testimony of the security employee convicted as the ‘ringleader.’”
Corporate Response
eBay issued a public statement acknowledging the misconduct and apologizing to the Steiners. “What the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened,” the company said. “We condemn, in the strongest terms possible, the employees who perpetrated and pled guilty to criminal charges.”
The company also acknowledged “the unprofessional tone in internal communications demonstrated, to different degrees and number, by Mr. Wenig, Mr. Wymer, and Ms. Jones.” eBay stated that new leadership has since strengthened policies, procedures, and ethics training.
Implications
The settlement is widely regarded as a landmark for corporate accountability. Attorney Christopher Murphy of Scalli Murphy Law called it “a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences.”
The personal financial contributions from former executives, combined with the absence of confidentiality restrictions, set a notable precedent. The $55.7 million total — including $2.55 million paid personally by the three executives — signals that corporate leaders can face substantial financial consequences even when not criminally charged.
For the Steiners, who founded EcommerceBytes in 1999 and have reported on the e-commerce industry for over two decades, the resolution brings closure to what Ina Steiner described as a “painful, life-changing experience.” Their case has raised enduring questions about corporate oversight and the protections available for journalists targeted by the companies they cover.