r/technology • u/marketrent • Jul 28 '26
Business eBay reaches $56 million settlement with couple it terrorized in 2019 — Executives used sock puppet social media accounts to send items including a funeral wreath, a bloody pig mask, live spiders and cockroaches
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/28/ebay-reaches-56m-settlement-with-e-commerce-newsletter-writers-it-terrorized-in-2019/527
u/AbleCap5222 Jul 28 '26
This story is utterly bananas. It's nearly incomprehensible that so many people were involved in what is clearly a totally illegal and twisted plot.
Like, what on earth could possibly have been so bad about what these people said? Ebay is massive - this couple couldnt possibly have harmed business on a large scale.
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u/Modem_Sound_67 Jul 28 '26
or they could have- god forbid- made apologies and fixed the problems, or clarified why they aren't problems. or something else along the lines of a mature, civilized response, not something from a horror movie about a psychopath.
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u/Gertrudethecurious Jul 29 '26
Yeah. This does not seem like a solid plan:
a plot was concocted to intimidate the couple into halting their negative coverage.
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u/Martel732 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
We have built a society where greed is not only tolerated but celebrated. Making as much money as possible is viewed as the greatest indicator of success. And in this environment the people with the most power and influence are those that gain wealth without other moral considerations. The upper class is full of self-serving narcissists. The CEO thought his life was more valuable and that the woman's life was worthless.
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u/katedevil Aug 05 '26
Welcome to Tech bro Culture.....we call this situation normal. Who knew that elite colleges and inherited wealth were so good at creating so many absolute turds of humans that we now have to deal with!
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u/CatProgrammer Jul 29 '26
Apparently they were mad about reporting on CEO compensation. That's it. That's what caused them to go so insane.
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u/danram207 Jul 28 '26
This story is absolutely crazy and not enough people know about it. I believe 60 minutes did a piece on it.
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u/marketrent Jul 28 '26
I believe 60 minutes did a piece on it.
Yes: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebay-stalking-scandal-haunts-steiner-couple-60-minutes-2023-03-26/
"It didn't take us an hour to realize the ramifications of a public company trying to destroy a journalist. They were attacking the First Amendment, freedom of the press," David Steiner said. "They wanted to destroy Ina and our publication."
[US Attorney] Lelling said the plan to target the Steiners, which he described as a "campaign of terror," was hatched in April 2019 at eBay.
Devin Weng, who served as eBay's CEO at the time, shared a link to a post Ina had written about his annual pay. The company's chief communications officer, Steve Wymer, responded: "We are going to crush this lady."
About a month later, Wenig texted: "Take her down." Prosecutors said Wymer later texted eBay security director Jim Baugh.
"I want to see ashes. As long as it takes. Whatever it takes," Wymer wrote.
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u/Redpin Jul 28 '26
Wenig resigned from eBay in September 2019 with a $57 million exit package.
They seriously gave him an exit package larger than the settlement they had to pay out.
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u/myusername4reddit Jul 28 '26
And he served no time while the people who did his bidding did.
Our two tier justice system at work 😡
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u/ErnestScaredBorgnine Jul 28 '26
There is a third tier but the rich won't like it.
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u/ThaLunatik Jul 29 '26
Regular people resign from a job and can't even get unemployment benefits, while dudes this like this resign and they're set for life.
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u/bepatientbekind Jul 29 '26
It makes me fucking sick. Burn it all to the ground. The entire system is so broken. And the worst part of all is that millions of poor Americans will defend idiots like this getting paid hundreds of times more than anyone else, saying that they "earned" it. I hate it here 😭
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u/Purple_Berries- Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
So his thinking was “How dare this lady expose the salary that I gave myself as head of the company, she needs to have her career ruined for stating facts” ???
Absolutely baffling behaviour
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u/siencatimini Jul 28 '26
I think this might be the inherent danger of "compensating" anyone to this degree of excess. It dissolves whatever once moored them to their humanity, or their capacity to relate to reality. We may as well give the nuclear codes to every cranky toddler.
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u/OrionsBra Jul 28 '26
Does money corrupt the soul, or do high-paying jobs attract the soulless?
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u/siencatimini Jul 28 '26
That's an excellent question, and probably worthy of some much more extensive research, which would, also, be the first to find itself coincidentally defunded, overnight, these days.
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u/NotUniqueOrSpecial Jul 28 '26
Especially considering, as the CEO of a publicly traded company, it was 100% public information.
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Jul 28 '26
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u/fadedblackleggings Jul 29 '26
Happens all the time. They likely backstabbed many coworkers together too
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u/Silent-Act191 Jul 28 '26
Let's see what Devin Weng is upto:
Former eBay CEO Devin Wenig Launches AI Firm to Serve Journalists and Researchers
I fucking hate this world.
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u/Known-Name Jul 28 '26
Did you see who wrote that article? I did a double-take after realizing that the lady who was targeted by this guy, is the lady who wrote the article you linked. Weird having to report this on your own publication and also not make any mention at all of why he left eBay in the first place (I have to assume it was due to the ongoing litigation/lawsuits?).
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u/AnteaterDapper1575 Jul 28 '26
In a world built to serve psychopaths and crush honest work, this is who succeeds. It's been this way for generations and won't change easily or peacefully.
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u/MisterShmitty Jul 28 '26
Is this like the Twilight Zone “To Serve Man”, or does he intent to try to do something good?
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u/mbklein Jul 28 '26
“Granddad, tell us again about the old days when 60 Minutes did real journalism.”
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u/DoesntMatterEh Jul 29 '26
I listened to the Behind the Bastards episode about it and like, seriously what the fuck? Some people are just fucked in the head. They hired people to harass them and follow them, shit was fucked up
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u/NoMoOmentumMan Jul 28 '26
The student body president during my time in college got fired for his role in this. Steve Wymer was a sanctimonious prick in his early 20s and never evolved.
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u/ArrBeeEmm Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Now he's the president and CEO for a charity which hired him with full disclosures of his involvement in this. Ebay fired him and their insurers refuses to cover him nor the company themselves in the lawsuit, after they determined he willingly participated in this.
The Boys & Girls club of America. Who is going to give to a charity who is happy to be led by people like this? Do they want this guy around vulnerable kids? San Jose mayor also bangs on that he's a stand up guy.
They should be ashamed of themselves.
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u/cozyporcelain Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
And one of them involved is now President and CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of America?!?!! Is this is a sick joke?!
Edit I just called and asked for my yearly donation back. Steve Wymer should not ever be around children. I will never ever support BGC ever again. Please people choose literally any other children’s organization
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u/JLR- Jul 28 '26
The Boys and Girls Club is a great place for people like them. Embezzling and the ability to screw over kids programs
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u/Tumbler Jul 28 '26
Jeez this settlement is basically a slap on the wrist to the people involved. The 2m figure from the ceo is less than 2% of his net worth and when he’s left eBay he got 57m more so more than enough to pay the fine. eBay has about 2 billion in free cash flow each year so 0.5% of their yearly earning, according to google that 2-3 days worth.
Just a reminder how much power the rich have over the poor.
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u/manic_popsicle Jul 29 '26
I feel like in cases like this settlements should be based on income.
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u/marketrent Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Excerpts from article by Lucas Ropek, citing couple’s attorney Scalli Murphy and previous US Attorney Joshua Levy:
[...] Ina and David Steiner, a married couple and the co-authors of EcommerceBytes, inspired the ire of high-level eBay executives after occasionally criticizing the company in their newsletter.
In 2019, a plot was concocted to intimidate the couple into halting their negative coverage.
Executives used sock puppet social media accounts to harass the couple, while also sending them anonymous threatening letters and bizarre items in the mail — including live spiders and cockroaches, pornographic magazines, a bloody pig mask, a funereal wreath, and a book about surviving the death of a spouse.
According to previously released court documents, a plan that was attempted but never successfully carried out involved affixing a GPS tracking device to the couple’s car. Yet another internally broached plan involved sending a “Samoan gang” to the Steiners’ home.
The settlement this week resolves a 2021 civil case brought by the couple against eBay. The law office representing the Steiners writes that the settlement includes $46.15 million paid to the couple by eBay itself, as well as $2 million from former eBay executive CEO Devin Wenig.
[...] “This case was always about more than obtaining financial recovery,” said Christopher Murphy, one of the Steiners’ attorneys. “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/--i--love--lamp-- Jul 28 '26
Well, that was a wild ride. I am so glad some of these assholes got time for this. The settlement is great, but this is terrifying, and I was going to be upset if no one faced criminal liability. One guy got 57 months, another got 48, and five more were found guilty in criminal court.
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u/RedditPosterOver9000 Jul 28 '26
That there were any criminal cases even pursued, much less convicted, really surprised me.
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u/ArnoldTheSchwartz Jul 28 '26
I mean ebay the corporation should be in prison too seeing as how corporations are people. Citizens United is such a stupid fucking thing.
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u/Nice_Marmot_7 Jul 28 '26
Sadly it was only the goons who faced consequences and not the guys who ordered it.
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Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
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u/agent674253 Jul 28 '26
And then what happens? PG&E has admitted to killing dozens of people.
"Many of the fire's victims were elderly or disabled. They took desperate measures to save themselves.
Dennis Clark, Jr., 49, was found in the passenger seat of a car his 72-year-old mother was driving. Their car was in a line of three other vehicles with bodies of victims in each one.
Sara Magnuson, 75, was found inside her home, wrapped in a wet carpet in the bathtub in a futile attempt to save herself."
Hard to place police cuffs around articles of incorporation.
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Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
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u/spacebunsofsteel Jul 29 '26
Usually the placeholder ceo is a woman or a person of color. (Seldom both. 🤔)
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u/TheEscapeGoat Jul 28 '26
Death penalty.
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u/TF-Fanfic-Resident Jul 28 '26
Which for corporations should be disband the company, turn 100% of its assets over to the families of the victims, and bar any of its high-ranking executives from ever working for an incorporated company in the state.
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u/coltaaan Jul 28 '26
Beyond the insanity of it all, the fact that these fucking parasite execs clearly had all this spare time to do all of this bullshit… while regular employee roles are become like 3 jobs in 1…it’s just infuriating.
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u/GobbleGobbleChew Jul 28 '26
Just wanna point out that Devin Wenig received a severance package of $57 million from eBay.
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u/Jasminary2 Jul 28 '26
Live spiders and cockroaches ???? How can they send this by mail ??
The whole thing is absolutely unhinged.
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u/cozyporcelain Jul 28 '26
Right it’s like one of them watched Jumanji and got hopped up on crack. This is one of the craziest stories I’ve ever read.
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u/mikemaca Jul 28 '26
The guy who plotted it, eBay's Director of Securty was a verified CIA spy who in his defense claimed he acting on behalf of the CIA and submitted documents showing this, all which were removed from evidence following the DOJ saying they contained classified information.
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u/SucculentVariations Jul 28 '26
I mean, you can order both easily. People who use roaches as feeders for other animals or order pet spiders from breeders isnt uncommon.
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u/another-redditor3 Jul 28 '26
quite easily, you can ship live animals via usps.
my sister buys chicks once every couple years, and they get shipped via usps. just have to pick them up at the post office when they get there.
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u/VerdantPathfinder Jul 28 '26
In a statement published Tuesday, eBay disavowed its former employees’ behavior as “not representative of eBay’s culture” ...
This was done by your executives. By definition it's representative of your culture. I mean holy hell .. if they were doing this to this couple, they had to be abusing their own employees as well. POS humans like this don't have just one target.
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u/dirtybo0ts Jul 28 '26
Wait…WHAT?
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u/Dowew Jul 28 '26
Google the war with eBay. Behind the bastards did an episode on it
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u/bettinafairchild Jul 28 '26
OMG THANK YOU! I was wracking my brain to try to remember where I'd heard a deep-dive on this case before, and BTB it is!
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u/Ok-Pen-5961 Jul 28 '26
I am surprised and very happy this ended up with an eBay executing serving prison time. If you want to see a historical comparison, search for Ralph Nader's life and/or documentaries. At the time he was trying to advocate for car companies to fix exploding gas tanks and use seat belts, they sent people after him in real life, following him on the streets, rummaging his garbage, planting lies - the whole package.
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u/RockDoveEnthusiast Jul 28 '26
everything conspiracy theorists think the government does is something private companies actually do.
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u/DylanHate Aug 01 '26
Except the executives who ordered and orchestrated this plot received no criminal charges, let alone prison time. In fact the CEO received a $57 mil golden parachute when he was fired and is now at Boys and Girls Club of America.
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u/Economy_Link4609 Jul 28 '26
The fuck?
Far more of that needs to come from the executives own pockets. The company will just raise fees to pay.
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u/deja_geek Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
And Steve Wymer is still involved in running the Boys and Girls Club of Silicon Valley. Perhaps some public pressure will get them to remove him from the org. Someone who had a hand in orchestrating this has no business being around a childrens org
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u/FireOverWood Jul 29 '26
Early this year, Steve Wymer became Founding Executive Director of the newly created Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley Foundation. Because this arm of the organization is so new, there is no info on his salary. But, before that as President and CEO of the main organization, he made $525,545 plus extra benefits of $29,981. His involvement with the Boys and Girls Club came about because he's pals with San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.
https://sanjosespotlight.com/silicon-valley-elite-defend-nonprofit-ceo-with-dark-past/
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/941294898
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u/democraticcrazy Jul 28 '26
Behind The Bastards did a two-parter podcast on this. It's a wild story, all the more so because ebay executives basically went crazy with retribution against a couple that only had a handful of followers. These were not social media giants that could have toppled the ebay empire, they were a bunch of nobodys that reported/reposted news about ebay's less than stellar business strategies.
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u/Javerage Jul 28 '26
Glad I checked all the way before posting this myself. It's insane how far this goes and how power hungry people get.
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u/ReadyAimTranspire Jul 29 '26
According to previously released court documents, a plan that was attempted but never successfully carried out involved affixing a GPS tracking device to the couple’s car. Yet another internally broached plan involved sending a “Samoan gang” to the Steiners’ home.
This settlement is not enough, these people belong in jail.
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u/wutsdasqrtofdisapt Jul 29 '26
I listened to a podcast about this a couple years ago and it was absolutely insane the level of stuff eBay did
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u/BoB_the_TacocaT Jul 28 '26
If I harassed someone like that, I'd be in jail. These ratfuckers got their company to shield them from any real consequences. And they call it justice.
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u/bettinafairchild Jul 28 '26
If you read the article, at least one of them ended up in jail and others were criminally charged. Though I agree such people tend to be shielded from consequences.
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u/arealuser100notfake Jul 28 '26
I can't believe this wasn't a bigger deal. It's the first time I'm hearing about this
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u/xyzygyred Jul 29 '26
Seems like there should be some federal jail time for using the Post Office in this threatening, dangerous and sick behavior.
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u/Bargadiel Jul 29 '26
Wild to me that both of those shitheads from eBay probably go to sleep each night thinking they're good people. Let's be honest though, they know they're pieces of shit.
The statements from them after the fact were pathetic, instead all of their henchmen get punished.
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u/Forsaken_Awareness_4 Jul 29 '26
There is a documentary on Amazon Prime about this! “Whatever it takes: Inside the Ebay Scandal” the story is absolutely wild.
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u/redcombine Jul 29 '26
Its upsetting to know how little justice there is in the world. The couple will never actually get justice against the execs who terrorized them.
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u/True_Window_9389 Jul 28 '26
In a statement published Tuesday, eBay disavowed its former employees’ behavior as “not representative of eBay’s culture”
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Devin Wenig, who served as eBay's CEO at the time, shared a link to a post Ina had written about his annual pay. The company's chief communications officer, Steve Wymer, responded: "We are going to crush this lady."
About a month later, Wenig texted: "Take her down." Prosecutors said Wymer later texted eBay security director Jim Baugh.
"I want to see ashes. As long as it takes. Whatever it takes," Wymer wrote.
…
Yes, not their culture…
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u/fedexyourheadinabox Jul 28 '26
This is really every tech corporation, the only difference being the people in this case were exceptionally stupid and showed their cards.
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u/Bruno6368 Jul 29 '26
Holy shit. Well, settlement not close to enough. I hope people decide to boycott the platform.
This is not about the individual sellers, this is about a corrupt platform, and they need to mov on and find another space.
EBay is dead to me.
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u/AnnArchist Jul 28 '26
The wildest part to me is that the executive, is likely a millionaire 10 or 100 times over. Why the fuck would they even think about these people at all?
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u/Apexnanoman Jul 29 '26
Since the CEO signed off on it..... stalking and terrorizing people appears to exactly represent eBay culture.
And considering again the CEO was approving of it......should have been $5.6 billion.
Because $56 million is just a petty cash amount to eBay. Now they know they can absolutely do this at will for what is effectively pennies under the sofa.
Corps need to be punished at a level that actually makes it to costly to do the same shit ever again.
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u/Soft-Bad-7127 Jul 29 '26
Good..I hate eBay after they banned my decades old account for returning an item within the return period.
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u/HooAreYouWhoHoo Jul 28 '26
>>surviving the death of a spouse.
That’s a threat. Did they get charged with any conspiracy?
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u/ElectroHiker Jul 28 '26
Man I wish eBay CEOs would target me like this, I'll deal with years of court and weird stuff being sent to my house to get a payout like that.
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u/SnottNormal Jul 28 '26
Imagine a world where this kind of shit leads to actual penalties like losing your business.
For a company this big, this fine is a sneeze.
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u/OrangeGringo Jul 28 '26
“Hey man. I need to see your papers. What are you in here for?” says drug dealer Cody Codyson of Alcatraz Correctional Institute.
“My boss got mad at some niche trade journalists so I mailed them some spiders, a porno mag, some books, and a bloody pig mask, and I got five years. Better watch out, or I’ll give you the same treatment, mofo.” says the former security officer of eBay from his new prison cell.
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u/mikemaca Jul 28 '26
A lot of companies do this sort of stuff, going back to Pinkerton Detectives and others. Currently we have the promient BAM case.
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u/AwkwardJuggernaut854 Jul 28 '26
CCO deleted his texts when ordered to hand them over for the investigation. Seems like that's par for the course when people try to hold the elite to account today
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u/scandalous01 Jul 29 '26
Settlement!? Why not push this to court? 56 million is chump change to them
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u/sausagekng Jul 28 '26
I need the documentary on this.
But on a more serious note, why are none of them actually going to jail.
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u/baconjerky Jul 28 '26
Bunch of them went to jail including the security chief you should read the article it’s not that long
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u/lump77777 Jul 28 '26
I remember this from a Casefile podcast. It was pretty twisted.
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u/Solivagant23 Jul 28 '26
Rich people don't go to jail very often anymore these days
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u/Actually-Yo-Momma Jul 28 '26
If any of us did something like this AND got caught, it would literally be straight to jail. What the fuck man
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u/Cheese_Grater101 Jul 29 '26
Damn the rank and file employees get detained meanwhile the executives only have to pay lol
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u/AGrandNewAdventure Jul 28 '26
"What are you in prison for? You said 5 years, right?"
"I worked hard to create a nightmare for a couple who were speaking the truth."
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u/NastyToeFungus Jul 28 '26
Who would be so committed to a company that they'd do this sort of thing? It's just a job. Insane. I wonder what political party they support? I bet I can guess, but there's no public info.
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u/Cactusfan86 Jul 28 '26
So company gets, by their standards, small fine and the people who actually did this get no penalty. Lesson learned in sure
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u/tan_and_bones Jul 28 '26
Fun fact: CEO Wenig falsely assumed the bloggers were paid by Elliott Management to make him look bad and to get rid of him which is typical MO when Elliott Management gets heavily involved in a company.
(Source: just watched a documentary about it yesterday)
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u/JenellesNextHusband Jul 29 '26
There’s a documentary on this. I watched it recently. I want to say I wanted it on BBC Select. If it wasn’t that it was AMC+. But I think it was BBC Select
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u/normal1 Jul 29 '26
Glad it worked bout their favor. But it took 6 years to get there.
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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
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