6 eBay Executives And Employees Charged With Sending Threats, Bloody Pig Mask To Natick Couple

Six former eBay executives and employees are facing federal charges after they allegedly led a cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple they believed was critical of the company in an online ecommerce newsletter.

...On August 18 just after midnight, the eBay employees allegedly posted a classified ad on Craigslist claiming to be from the Natick couple inviting “singles, couples and swingers” to their house to party after 10 p.m. every night.

“People were encouraged to knock on the couple’s door, anytime day or night,” said Lelling.

All of the employees were fired by eBay following an investigation. Lelling said the company cooperated with investigators.

“For a while they succeeded, psychologically devastating these victims for weeks,” Lelling said.“The result as alleged in the complaint was a systematic campaign fueled by the resources of a Fortune 500 company to emotionally and psychologically terrorize this middle aged couple in Natick, with the goal of deterring them from writing bad things online about eBay.”

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...But prosecutors named several senior employees, including 45-year-old James Baugh, a former senior director of safety and security, and 48-year-old David Harville, the firm's former director of resiliency. Both were arrested on Monday.

US Attorney Andrew Lelling told a news conference that the alleged harassment campaign included threatening Twitter messages and several visits to the couple's home, with the intent to break into the garage and install a tracking device.

Several of the group are also said to have ordered "anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims' home, including a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, a book on surviving the loss of a spouse and pornography - the last of these addressed to the newsletter's publisher, but sent to his neighbours' homes", Mr Lelling said.

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...'As protection in the event they were stopped by local police, Baugh and Harville allegedly carried false documents purporting to show that they were investigating the victims as “Persons of Interest” who had threatened eBay executives,' according to the press release.

But the defendants' stratagem ultimately unraveled after the victims spotted the surveillance and notified the Natick police, who began to investigate.

The police learned that Zea had rented one of the cars used by the defendants and reached out to eBay for assistance.

Aware that the police were investigating, the defendants allegedly sought to interfere with the investigation by lying to the police about eBay’s involvement while pretending to offer the company’s assistance with the harassment, as well as by lying to eBay’s lawyers about their involvement.

At one point, Baugh, Gilbert, Popp, and Stockwell allegedly plotted to fabricate another eBay 'Person of Interest' document that could be offered to the police as a lead on some of the harassing deliveries.

As the police and eBay’s lawyers continued to look into the allegations, the defendants allegedly deleted digital evidence that showed their involvement, further obstructing what had by then become a federal investigation.

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