https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/may/12/ebay-executive-guilty-boston-couple-harassment

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eBay

Ex-eBay exec pleads guilty to terrorizing couple with spiders and
funeral wreaths

David Harville is one of six others charged for harassing the Boston
duo who ran a new newsletter criticizing the company

In this photo illustration an ebay logo seen displayed on a
smartphone screen.
[ ]
Harville was included in the scheme to terrorize the creators of an
online newsletter. Photograph: Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto/Rex/
Shutterstock
Harville was included in the scheme to terrorize the creators of an
online newsletter. Photograph: Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto/Rex/
Shutterstock

Associated Press

Thu 12 May 2022 17.52 EDTLast modified on Thu 12 May 2022 17.55 EDT

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A former eBay executive pleaded guilty on Thursday to participating
in a scheme to terrorize the creators of an online newsletter that
included the delivery of live spiders and other disturbing items to
their home.

 
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David Harville, eBay's former director of global resiliency, is the
final onetime eBay employee charged in the case to plead guilty. Six
others have admitted to their roles in the harassment campaign
targeting a Massachusetts couple who publish the newsletter
EcommerceBytes, which eBay executives viewed as critical of the
company.

The scheme included sending items like a box of live cockroaches, a
funeral wreath and books about surviving the loss of a spouse to the
couple's home with the hopes of getting them to stop publishing
negative articles about the company, prosecutors say. eBay employees
also set up fake social media accounts to send threatening messages
to the couple and posted the couple's home address online.

Harville and others were charged in June 2020 over the plot, which
authorities say was orchestrated by members of eBay's executive
leadership team after the newsletter published an article about a
lawsuit filed by eBay accusing Amazon of poaching its sellers,
authorities said.

Another former executive who pleaded guilty last month, James Baugh,
held meetings to coordinate the harassment campaign and directed
Harville to go with him to Boston to spy on the couple, prosecutors
say.

Harville flew to Boston from California and bought tools with a plan
to break into the couple's garage and install a GPS tracker on their
car, prosecutors say. Over dinner in Boston, he and Baugh joked about
what could be left on the couple's porch, including a bag of human
feces, assistant US attorney Seth Kosto said.

Harville pleaded guilty during a hearing held via video conference
before a Boston federal court judge. An email seeking comment was
sent to his lawyers on Thursday.

The couple, Ina and David Steiner, sued eBay and several employees
including the former CEO Devin Wenig last summer over what they
described as a conspiracy to "intimidate, threaten to kill, torture,
terrorize, stalk and silence them" in order to "stifle their
reporting on eBay".

Wenig was not criminally charged, has denied any knowledge of the
harassment campaign, and his lawyers have asked that the Steiners'
claims against him be dismissed. He stepped down as CEO of eBay in
2019.

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