Ebay to pay $3 million penalty over harassment of couple behind newsletter

investing.com:

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) -EBay has agreed to pay $3 million to resolve a U.S. criminal probe into a campaign by several of its employees to stalk and harass a Massachusetts couple whose online newsletter was viewed as critical of the e-commerce company.

Federal prosecutors in Boston said on Thursday that eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve the case after seven former eBay workers admitted to participating in an extensive campaign in 2019 that involved sending the couple cockroaches, fly larvae and a bloody Halloween pig mask.

The victims were David and Ina Steiner, a married couple in Natick, Massachusetts, who produce the newsletter EcommerceBytes and have sued eBay over what they say was a relentless campaign by its employees to terrorize them.

The $3 million fine represents the maximum penalty prosecutors said they could seek after charging eBay with six counts of stalking, obstruction of justice and witness tampering for what they called its «absolutely horrific» criminal conduct.

«The company's employees and contractors involved in this campaign put the victims through pure hell, in a petrifying campaign aimed at silencing their reporting and protecting the eBay brand,» Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement.

The San Jose, California-based company admitted to facts about its conduct and agreed to retain an independent corporate compliance monitor for three years and must make changes to its compliance program. Charges would be dropped after three years if it complies with the deal.

EBay CEO Jamie Iannone in a statement called his company's conduct in 2019 «wrong and reprehensible,» and he said it was «committed to upholding high standards of conduct