An in-depth look at a 2019 cyberstalking campaign by eBay employees against two critics who are now suing the company, its former CEO, and others for harassment
The victims of a bizarre cyberstalking operation are trying to hold the chief executive and the culture of the company responsible. Tweets: @bubbaprog , @patrick_hruby , @eperakslis , @jefftobiasspac , and @rachaelmyrow Tweets: Timothy Burke / @bubbaprog : mega-rich can hide behind their corporations for their crimes bc mindset is perpetuated in this very article about them, thanks to the clause beginning with the word “even.” Imagine if the word was, and there's no reason to believe it wouldn't be more accurate, “especially.” https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Patrick Hruby / @patrick_hruby : Bonkers stuff, and very hard not to conclude that the people running eBay were too rich, powerful, narcissistic, and isolated—it makes no sense why they'd care so much about a blog! https://www.nytimes.com/... Eric D Perakslis / @eperakslis : Low level people on these platforms have outrageous access and capability to cause harm. Models must evolve to counterweight the risks. https://www.nytimes.com/... Jeff Tobias / @jefftobiasspac : eBay hired a group of ex-military/ex-cop operators to harass and terrorize a middle aged couple who run a blog about e-commerce https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Rachael Myrow / @rachaelmyrow : The attacks were still escalating when police traced them back to @eBay ... Since those weeks in 2019, everyone — prosecutors, judges, the victims, the perpetrators and eBay itself — has come to agree that a really bad thing happened. https://www.nytimes.com/... via @nytimestech https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
When federal prosecutors charged six former eBay security employees in mid-2020 for the campaign against the ECommerceBytes blogging duo, the story initially read as employee misconduct — until eBay confirmed that ex-CEO Devin Wenig was the person who allegedly ordered the operation, though he was never criminally charged. Four of the six later pleaded guilty, while two senior executives allegedly involved denied wrongdoing.
This week's New York Times deep-dive reframes the episode around accountability at the top: the victims' lawsuit names eBay, Wenig, and others, arguing the harassment reflected company culture rather than rogue actors. With eBay and former executives also agreeing to pay nearly $56 million to settle a civil case, the suit forces the question of whether a settlement closes the matter or leaves individual executives personally exposed.
First-order effects
- The lawsuit shifts liability up the org chart from the six charged employees to Wenig and senior leadership, testing whether executives who allegedly ordered the campaign but escaped criminal charges can be held accountable in civil court.
- For eBay, the suit keeps a 2019 security-team operation alive as active litigation despite the four guilty pleas and the nearly $56 million civil settlement.
Second-order effects
- Civil discovery in the suit threatens to surface internal documents showing how far up the chain the harassment was approved — material the criminal cases never examined because Wenig was not among the defendants.
- Companies running in-house threat-intelligence teams face pressure to audit how those units monitor critics, since eBay's exposure stems from a security function repurposed for retaliation against a newsletter's writers.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — employees prosecuted, companies settling, the ordering executive sued separately — corporate harassment campaigns become a personal-liability risk for C-suite leaders rather than a compliance line item absorbed by the employer.
- The case points toward tighter governance of corporate security and intelligence functions, where monitoring critics can slide into illegal retaliation absent clear internal authorization boundaries.
The trend: Corporate cyberstalking is shifting from employee-level prosecutions toward C-suite accountability, as victims pursue civil suits that name the executives who allegedly ordered the abuse.