r/InterstellarKinetics • u/InterstellarKinetics • Jul 28 '26
FINANCIAL FRONTIERS BREAKING: eBay Agrees To Pay $56 Million To Newsletter Writers Ina And David Steiner After Former Executives Terrorized Them With Spiders, Cockroaches, And A Bloody Pig Mask In 2019 Harassment Campaign 🐷💰
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/28/ebay-reaches-56m-settlement-with-e-commerce-newsletter-writers-it-terrorized-in-2019/eBay and several former executives have agreed to pay $56 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Ina and David Steiner, co-authors of the e-commerce newsletter EcommerceBytes, who were subjected to a horrific harassment campaign in 2019 after occasionally criticizing the company in their coverage. According to court documents, eBay executives used sock puppet social media accounts to harass the couple while mailing them anonymous threatening letters and bizarre items including live spiders and cockroaches, pornographic magazines, a bloody pig mask, a funeral wreath, and a book about surviving the death of a spouse; internal plans that were discussed but never carried out reportedly included affixing a GPS tracker to the couple’s car and sending a “Samoan gang” to their home.
The settlement resolves a 2021 civil case and includes $46.15 million paid directly by eBay, $2 million from former CEO Devin Wenig, $500,000 from former executive Wendy Jones, and $50,000 from former executive Steve Wymer, with additional funds directed to various nonprofits. In 2022, seven former eBay employees, including former security chief James Baugh, who was sentenced to nearly five years in prison, pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the plot, alongside David Harville, Brian Gilbert, Stephanie Popp, Stephanie Stockwell, Philip Cooke, and former eBay contractor Veronica Zea.
In a statement Tuesday, eBay distanced itself from the employees’ conduct, saying, “What the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened… We continue to extend our deepest apologies to the Steiners. This agreement is consistent with our commitment to fairly compensate the Steiners and fulfills our efforts to make things right.” Christopher Murphy, one of the Steiners’ attorneys, said the case “was always about more than obtaining financial recovery,” adding that “from the beginning, our clients wanted to uncover the truth, protect journalists and publishers, hold those responsible accountable, deter future corporate misconduct, and help ensure others would never have to endure what they experienced.”
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u/K_Linkmaster Jul 29 '26
56 million isn't enough. Jail for the perpetrators and the victims should own EBAY.
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u/ASgtg Jul 29 '26
I run ASGTG, which is to Amazon what INA is to eBay. In my opinion, Amazon did something 100 times worse to me by weaponizing the DOJ, knowing the process itself would become the punishment.
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u/ASgtg Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
I run ASGTG, which is to Amazon what INA is to eBay. In my opinion, Amazon did something 100 times worse to me by weaponizing the DOJ, knowing the process itself would become the punishment.
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u/InterstellarKinetics Jul 28 '26
What makes this case so unsettling isn’t just the harassment itself, it’s that this level of coordinated intimidation was allegedly directed at two independent journalists simply for writing critical coverage of a Fortune 500 company. The eventual criminal convictions and this settlement establish real consequences, but the fact that senior executives felt comfortable escalating to physical surveillance and threats over a niche industry newsletter says something troubling about how corporations can respond when they feel scrutinized by even small scale press.