New York CNN —eBay will pay a $3 million criminal penalty for a harassment campaign, including sending live cockroaches, of a Massachusetts-based couple who ran a newsletter that was sometimes critical of the company. eBay was charged with six criminal offenses, including stalking, witness tampering and obstruction of justice, after several of the company’s employees sent disturbing packages to the home of Ina and David Steiner in 2019, including a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, live insects and a funeral wreath. “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,” Levy said. According to the US attorney’s statement, eBay employees, including Jim Baugh, eBay’s senior director of safety and security at the time, were frustrated with the tone of the Steiners’ newsletter, which aimed to provide information to eBay sellers. eBay said it terminated all involved employees in 2020, including the company’s former chief communications officer.

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Persons: Ina, David Steiner, Joshua Levy, ” Levy, Jamie Iannone, ” Iannone, Jim Baugh, eBay’s, “, Baugh, Levy, ” Organizations: New, New York CNN, eBay, Massachusetts US, DOJ, Craigslist Locations: New York, Massachusetts