Former eBay execs jailed for almost 5 years after they sent threatening messages and delivered a fetal pig to a couple’s house
- Two former eBay executives were sentenced to prison on Thursday for the harassment of a couple.
- The couple published a newsletter that was seen as critical of the company.
Two former eBay executives were sentenced to prison on Thursday for partaking in the harassment of an editor and a publisher of a newsletter, eCommercebytes.
James Baugh, eBay’s former director of safety and security, and David Harville, eBay’s former director of global resiliency, both pled guilty to the charges, according to a press release from the US attorney’s office in Massachusetts.
Baugh was sentenced to 57 months in prison and Harville was given two years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $20,000, per the release.
As Insider’s Dominick Reuter reported in May, the harassment took place in 2019. As well as sending threatening messages, the two men and their co-conspirators sent deliveries to David and Ina Steiner’s home including a book on surviving the death of a spouse, a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, a funeral wreath, and live insects. They also invited people to visit the couple’s house for sexual encounters via Craigslist.
Baugh and Harville had targeted the Steiners because they believed their newsletter had been critical of eBay, per the press release.
EBay did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
Rachael S. Rollins, the US attorney for Massachusetts, said in the press release: “The defendants’ toxic brand of online and real-world harassment, threats, and stalking was outrageous, cruel, and defies any explanation—all the more because these men were seasoned and highly paid security executives backed by the resources of a Fortune 500 corporation.”
