This unusual case reveals a dark side of corporate behavior. Seven eBay employees faced felony convictions for their roles in the relentless intimidation campaign.
CEO’s Involvement
The harassment intensified after Ina Steiner wrote an article in August 2019 about a lawsuit between eBay and Amazon.
eBay’s then-CEO, Devin Wenig, allegedly sent a message expressing a desire to bring down Ina Steiner.
This unsettling directive was shared with James Baugh, eBay’s senior director of safety and security, who referred to Ina Steiner as a “biased troll who needs to get BURNED DOWN.”
Subsequently, the Steiners received ominous packages containing live cockroaches, spiders, a Halloween mask of a bloody pig, and a book titled “Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Spouse.”
eBay Intimidation Campaign
The ordeal began in 2019 with what authorities describe as an “online intimidation campaign.”
The Steiners, who operate their e-commerce trade publication called EcommerceBytes, were targeted by an eBay seller’s Twitter account, now known as X. The motive behind the harassment was allegedly linked to the Steiners’ reporting on eBay.
