{"id":4456,"date":"2026-07-29T08:09:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4456"},"modified":"2026-07-29T08:09:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:09:40","slug":"ebay-will-pay-nearly-50-million-after-employees-reportedly-sent-a-massachusetts-couple-a-bloody-pig-mask-cockroaches-and-death-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4456","title":{"rendered":"eBay will pay nearly $50 million after employees reportedly sent a Massachusetts couple a bloody pig mask, cockroaches and death threats"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The parties reached a\u00a0tentative settlement in February\u00a0as the case was headed to trial, but they were unable to finalize the agreement. The Steiners asked a federal judge in June to reopen the case, and a new settlement announced Tuesday resolves the litigation.<\/p>\n

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The agreement with David and Ina Steiner, founders of EcommerceBytes, a newsletter covering the e-commerce industry, includes an additional $7 million in charitable donations, including to organizations supporting First Amendment rights. Attorney Christopher Murphy said the resolution sends \u201ca warning that attempts by big business to suppress speech and the press will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis was not only an attack and campaign of harassment against two people; it was also an attack on free speech and freedom of the press,\u201d said Murphy, of Massachusetts-based Scalli Murphy Law.<\/p>\n

The settlement contains no confidentiality provision, allowing the Steiners to discuss the case publicly. Murphy said his clients insisted on being able to speak openly about what happened to them.<\/p>\n

The settlement resolves\u00a0more than six years of criminal and civil proceedings\u00a0stemming from the harassment campaign. In their 2021\u00a0, the Steiners said that the company engaged in a conspiracy to \u201cintimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence them\u201d in order to \u201cstifle their reporting on eBay.\u201d The Natick residents, who report on the e-commerce industry in their newsletter, said they were subjected to cyberstalking, death threats and in-person surveillance by former eBay workers.<\/p>\n

The settlement also requires eBay to issue a public statement addressing the conduct of former executives involved in the case.<\/p>\n

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When the lawsuit was filed, the company said \u201cthe misconduct of these former employees was wrong,\u201d and that it would \u201cdo what is fair and appropriate to try to address what the Steiners went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

eBay reiterated its apology Tuesday, saying, \u201cWhat the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened.\u201d The company also acknowledged \u201cthe unprofessional tone in internal communications\u201d by former CEO Devin Wenig, former Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer and former Senior Vice President Wendy Jones.<\/p>\n

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The company said the conduct \u201cis not representative of eBay\u2019s culture\u201d and said it has since changed leadership and strengthened its policies, procedures and ethics training.<\/p>\n

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In 2020, federal prosecutors\u00a0charged\u00a0seven former eBay employees, alleging they carried out a coordinated harassment campaign against the couple after becoming angered by coverage in the couple\u2019s online newsletter. Most of the defendants pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy and cyberstalking and were later sentenced to prison terms or home confinement.<\/p>\n

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In 2024, eBay Inc. agreed to pay a\u00a0$3 million criminal penalty\u00a0under a deferred prosecution agreement with federal authorities.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors have said the harassment included anonymous deliveries of items like live cockroaches and spiders, a funeral wreath, and a bloody pig face mask to the couple\u2019s home. The employees also sent pornographic magazines with the husband\u2019s name on them to a neighbor\u2019s home and planned to break into the couple\u2019s garage to install a GPS device on their car.<\/p>\n

Under the settlement, the Steiners will receive $48.7 million in compensation, including $46.15 million from eBay, $2 million from former CEO Wenig, $500,000 from former executive Jones and $50,000 from former executive Wymer.<\/p>\n

The company will fund $6 million in charitable contributions to various nonprofit organizations, with Wenig contributing an additional $1 million to a charity dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights in Ina Steiner\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

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In a statement, Murphy cited the recovery amount, personal payments by former executives, a commitment for $7 million to go to nonprofits and the absence of a confidentiality provision in a system where \u201cwrongdoers too often hide their misdeeds by dangling compensation in front of those they victimized and trading that compensation for confidentiality or an NDA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protecting journalists and publishers and deterring corporate misconduct were goals from the beginning, he said. \u201cWe believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump broke his promise to lower \u2014 and eliminate \u2014 the national debt. A top investor thinks he\u2019s the \u2018worst-spending president in history\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The settlement resolves a lawsuit over former employees’ stalking of a newsletter couple who covered eBay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ebay"],"yoast_head":"\neBay will pay nearly $50 million after employees reportedly sent a Massachusetts couple a bloody pig mask, cockroaches and death threats - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4456\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"eBay will pay nearly $50 million after employees reportedly sent a Massachusetts couple a bloody pig mask, cockroaches and death threats - 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