eBay’s Cyberstalking Drama: The Information’s Tech Briefing

Auction site eBay has gone through some fascinating corporate drama lately, including a power struggle on its board involving activist investor Elliott and the departure of CEO Devin Wenig last year. But nothing can compare to the extraordinary allegations made by the Justice Department in a cyberstalking case filed on Monday against former executives of eBay. 

The government alleges that a group of (now former) eBay employees tried to intimidate two people behind an ecommerce newsletter who wrote something they didn’t like by sending them, among other things, a box of live cockroaches, a “preserved fetal pig,” a funeral wreath and a book on surviving the loss of a spouse. Those involved in the alleged cyberstalking included eBay’s former senior director of safety and security, former director of global resiliency and managers in the global intelligence center. eBay says it terminated the employees last year and apologized to the targets of their alleged harassment.