This story is about a giant corporation terrorizing a couple who dared to criticize it.
David and Ina Steiner (photo, above left) started a website in 1999 which Wikipedia describes as “a kind of trade publication for anyone whose business is selling items online.” It also offered “critiques” of e-commerce platforms, including eBay.
Twenty years later, Devin Wenig, eBay’s CEO (photo, above right), didn’t like the critiques, which included commentary about his salary. He ordered eBay’s security department to “take down” the Steiners.
Wikipedia describes the stalking and harassment campaign that followed here; read a more detailed account of the scandal here.
The Steiners sued eBay (see story here), and reported the harassment to law enforcement. The company hired a law firm to investigate. Then some heads rolled.
Wenig was paid $57 million to leave, but wasn’t prosecuted, and was re-elected to General Motors’ board of directors despite the eBay scandal. I guess power and position have their privileges.
It’s always the flunkies who pay the price. Seven eBay security employees pled guilty to crimes (details here). One, a former police captain, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.
The reckoning for the two eBay execs who ran the stalking and harassment campaign came on Thursday, September 29, 2022.
Jim Baugh (left), a former CIA employee, got 57 months in prison; David Harville (right) got 24 months in prison (see stories here and here).
Wikipedia says an eighth employee who was fired, but not charged with any crime, “was hired the next year as the head of a local branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America … that knew about [his] involvement in the harassment scandal.” One wonders why. Maybe he was available and affordable, hmm.
What are we to make of this? First of all, this is no way for big corporations (or any other business) to behave. And second, there need to be consequences to deter others from similar behavior. Sending the bad actors to jail helps send that message. So would be a big jury verdict against eBay and Wenig, to show that bad behavior doesn’t pay.
If I were on the jury, I’d transfer that $57 million from him to the Steiners, because he shouldn’t profit from his forced departure. But that’s just me. And what General Motors does with him is their business, I guess.