eBay pays $50 million after former employees terrorized couple with cockroaches
Former eBay Inc. and some of its employees will pay out a $50 million settlement after being accused of some skin-crawling actions in a lawsuit filed by a Massachusetts couple. The lawsuit claims the former employees mailed a series of disturbing packages to the plaintiffs, who are both bloggers.
Not the mail they were expecting
The couple accused former eBay employees of mailing them packages that contained a preserved fetal pig, live spiders and cockroaches, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, and a self-help book about surviving the death of a spouse.
It's enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
In the 2021 lawsuit, the couple alleged that the harassment campaign started in 2019. Both David and Ina Steiner are bloggers who specifically focus on the e-commerce industry.
Former employees were accused of threatening, intimidating and more
The lawsuit has now been settled, with eBay as a corporate entity paying $46.15 million of the settlement, while the individual former executives are contributing smaller portions of the settlement.
"We hope that the size of the settlement amount will act as a deterrent to any corporation that uses their resources to intimidate journalists into compliance simply because they don't agree with their coverage," the couple said in a statement to FOX Business.
The lawsuit claimed that the former employees were incensed about the couple's reporting. It claimed that the former employees conspired to "intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk, and silence them."
Former head honchos also named in the lawsuit
Among the former employees named in the lawsuit were the former CEO, Devin Wenig, former Senior Vice President, Wendy Jones, and former Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer. None of them were criminally charged.
In 2020, the federal prosecutors charged one contractor and six other former eBay employees. Each of them ended up pleading guilty.
As per the settlement, the couple will receive $46.15 million from eBay, $2 million from former CEO Wenig, $500,000 from former executive Jones and $50,000 from former executive Wymer.
Source: Fox Business
