BOSTON (WHDH) - Federal officials on Monday laid out a shocking case against a handful of eBay executives who they say orchestrated a complex cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple who ran a newsletter that was critical of the company that included mailing them porn, a pig mask, live cockroaches, spiders, and advertising online that their home was a location where swingers could meet for sex.
The victims, who are married, ran a blog that covered various ecommerce companies, including eBay, and in August 2019 began being harassed and stalked by James Baugh, David Harville, Stephanie Popp, Brian Gilbert, Stephanie Stockwell, and Veronica Zea, all of whom were officers, employers, or contractors of eBay, Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling announced during a news conference on Monday.
The carefully orchestrated harassment campaign, Lelling alleged, included sending anonymous, threatening messages, ordering unwanted and disturbing deliveries to their home, including funeral wreaths, books on surviving the loss of a spouse, live cockroaches, fly larvae, and live spiders.
The executives also allegedly arranged to have “Barely Legal” porn mailed to their neighbor’s address under their name.
All of which was detailed in text messages recovered by investigators, Lelling said.
Baugh, 45, of San Jose, Calif., was eBay’s senior director of safety and security, Harville, 48, of New York City, was eBay’s director of global resiliency, Popp, 32, of San Jose, Calif., was eBay’s senior manager of global intelligence, Stockwell, 26, of San Jose, Calif., was an intelligence analyst, Zea, 26, of San Jose, was an eBay contractor, and Gilbert, 51, of San Jose, a former police captain, was senior manager of special operations for eBay’s global security team.
The couple told investigators the abuse resulted in “lost sleep, physical symptoms of anxiety, concern about what would happen to them next, and when in public, a fear that they were being followed,” according to court documents.
The scheme allegedly involved someone reaching out as a representative of eBay and offering to stop the campaign of harassment.
But when they realized investigators had traced several of the purchases to Zea, Lelling alleges they began deleting compromising information about the harassment and their planning of the deliveries, making excuses for why they would be in the Natick area when they were surveilling the couple, and pushing the narrative that eBay was a massive company with no interest in the couple.
All six are expected to face federal charges in Boston.
This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.
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