“Take her down.”
Three words from eBay CEO Davin Wenig to chief communications officer Steve Wymer in May 2019 would ignite one of Silicon Valley’s most disturbing corporate scandals.
For David and Ina Steiner, founders of the independent newsletter EcommerceBytes, those words marked the beginning of a three-week campaign of intimidation involving live insects, a fetal pig, anonymous threats, and a funeral wreath delivered to their quiet suburban home.
Seven years later, in July 2026, accountability finally caught up with eBay as the company agreed to settle a case that had begun with something seemingly ordinary: a newsletter article examining executive compensation.
A married couple nearly had their lives and dreams destroyed by eBay
Ina and David met in the 1980s when she was a senior at North Adams State College, and he was performing in a band at a party she attended.
They have been together ever since, sharing a peaceful married life in Natick, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, until the 2019 eBay harassment campaign brought them into the spotlight.
The pair launched an online newsletter called AuctionBytes in 1999.
It began as a side project alongside their respective careers — David as a video producer and Ina as the publisher of a print newsletter called Bibliodata.
The idea was simple: to share news from the fast-growing world of e-commerce.
Over time, AuctionBytes evolved into EcommerceBytes, earning a reputation as a trusted resource for anyone trying to navigate the ever-changing policies and practices of platforms such as eBay, Amazon, and Etsy.
Their reporting was thorough. Their criticism was direct.
And eventually, it attracted the attention of people who did not want to be questioned.
Ina’s write-up exposed an enormous pay inequality inside eBay
In January 2019, eBay was facing mounting pressure from investors.
Hedge fund Elliott Management had just acquired a $1.4 billion stake in the company, representing more than 4% ownership, and quickly pushed for a sweeping plan aimed at increasing shareholder value.
The firm’s five-point “Enhancing eBay” proposal called for major changes, including replacing then-CEO Devin Wenig, citing concerns over performance, strategy and more.
It was during this troubled period that Ina Steiner published a story examining Wenig’s compensation.
On April 10, 2019, EcommerceBytes reported that Wenig’s pay was 152 times higher than that of a typical eBay employee.
The article was factual. But inside eBay’s leadership circles, it was viewed as an attack at a time when the company was already maneuvering through turbulence.
Within hours, Wenig received a text from Wymer that read, “We are going to crush this lady.”
Wenig’s reply came late, on May 31.
At first, it appeared dismissive, as he wrote, “I couldn’t care less what she says.”
But seconds later, he added the aforementioned three words that would go on to haunt the company for years.
Anger soon turned into action with eBay’s senior officers wanting to “make an example” out of the Steiners
The hostility did not remain confined to private exchanges between the two.
Wendy Jones, eBay’s senior vice president, contacted Wymer about concerns raised by Jim Baugh, the company’s senior director of safety and security.
Jones told Wymer that Baugh had approached her “with some thoughts” about Ina’s article, but she had told him to “stand down and leave it alone.”
Wymer’s response suggested a very different mindset.
“You are being too kind,” he wrote. “Tell him to be my advisor on this issue. Sometimes you just need to make an example out of someone.”
Those words would later become central to prosecutors’ portrayal of a campaign that escalated far beyond corporate frustration.
Ina’s work led those in power to silence her at any cost
S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
The next major flashpoint came after an EcommerceBytes article covering eBay’s legal battle with Amazon.
The dispute began in October 2018, when eBay sued its rival, accusing the company of attempting to recruit and divert its sellers.
Nearly a year later, on August 1, 2019, Ina revisited the case in an article titled “eBay Continues Fight Against Amazon in Poaching Lawsuit.”
Within 30 minutes of the article’s publication, Wenig sent Wymer another message.
“If you are ever going to take her down… now is the time.”
Wymer forwarded the message to Baugh, adding his own anger.
He described Ina as a “biased troll” who needed to be “BURNED DOWN.”
He wanted consequences. He wanted action.
“Do whatever it takes,” he wrote.
On August 5, 2019, the operation began.
eBay flooded their email inboxes with terrifying messages
Whatever It Takes: Inside the eBay Scandal (2024) – IMDb
Three days after the last conversation between eBay professionals, the pair began receiving emails they had never signed up for.
Their inboxes were suddenly flooded with newsletters and subscriptions linked to disturbing and provocative themes, including Sin City adult events, the Satanic Temple and the Communist Party of the United States.
The Steiners were left trying to answer a terrifying question: Who was behind it, and how far would they go?
Then came the social media messages.
Anonymous accounts began sending direct messages on X (formerly Twitter), delivering warnings that quickly crossed the line from harassment into intimidation.
“Shut up or else,” read one message.
The actions eventually extended beyond digital channels and into personal attacks.
Three days after the strange emails and online threats began, the Steiners received an unusual voicemail.
The caller claimed they were unable to complete an order for a “wet specimen.”
Confused, David called the number back.
“What is a wet specimen?” he asked.
The answer was chilling: A pig fetus.
Packages began arriving at the couple’s home on Sunset Street containing disturbing items
Each delivery appeared carefully chosen to unsettle them.
Among the items were a gory pig Halloween mask, a preserved fetal pig, live cockroaches and spiders, a book about coping with the demise of a spouse, and a funeral wreath.
A mature-content magazine bearing David’s name was additionally sent to a neighbor’s address.
The harassment expanded further.
The Steiners received large pizza deliveries they had never ordered. Their home was listed on Craigslist as the location of intimate parties.
The message behind the campaign appeared clear: someone wanted them humiliated, isolated, and mum.
For David, however, two deliveries stood out above all others.
The book about surviving the loss of a spouse and the funeral wreath.
To him, the implication was unmistakable.
“It was a d**th threat,” David later told 60 Minutes, the CBS investigative program, during an interview in March 2023.
A new phase of harassment began as the targeting of the Steiners extended to stalking
David noticed something unusual while going about his daily routine in mid-August. He believed he was being followed.
One day, it was a car trailing him. Another day, it was a van.
The feeling of being watched became impossible to ignore.
Then, one moment changed everything.
David managed to photograph the license plate of the van following him.
Police in Natick, Massachusetts, traced the license plate to a rental agency and discovered that the vehicle had been rented by Veronica Zea, an eBay contractor working as an intelligence analyst.
The discovery left the Steiners stunned.
Speaking on 60 Minutes, Ina recalled their disbelief upon learning the information.
“I can’t describe how flabbergasted we were,” she said. “I mean, what was an eBay employee doing in a rental van, following David?”
The question would soon lead investigators deeper into the company.
The investigation reached eBay, and the perpetrators ended up terminated
By late August 2019, Natick police had identified the surveillance as one component of a broader, multi-stage campaign targeting the Steiners.
The FBI was brought into the investigation, and federal authorities soon took over the case.
Meanwhile, eBay’s own security department began examining suspicious activity connected to the harassment.
As investigators pieced together the chain of events, the company moved against employees involved in the alleged operation.
By September 2019, those connected to the campaign had been terminated, including Wymer and Baugh.
But the case was far from done.
In June 2020, federal prosecutors announced charges against seven former eBay employees and contractors.
The people behind the operation were made public
Prosecutors identified Jim Baugh as the mastermind of the prolonged intimidation campaign.
David Harville, eBay’s former director of global resilience, was accused of helping execute the campaign on the ground.
Authorities alleged that he had traveled to Massachusetts, attempted to surveil the Steiners and tried to install a GPS tracking device on their vehicle.
Philip Cooke, a former Santa Clara police captain who served as a senior manager on eBay’s Global Security team, was accused of supervising parts of the operation and participating in efforts to conceal it.
Brian Gilbert, a senior manager of special operations within eBay’s Global Security team, and Stephanie Stockwell, who managed eBay’s Global Intelligence Center, were accused of assisting in planning and carrying out the harassment campaign, including creating false narratives to justify surveillance efforts.
Stephanie Popp, another senior manager within the Global Intelligence Center, was also accused of helping plan and direct the operation.
Veronica Zea, an intelligence analyst and contractor with eBay’s Global Intelligence Center, was accused of assisting with the effort as well.
The allegations revealed a disturbing picture: a group of corporate security employees using the very tools designed to protect a company to instead target two journalists.
Police Department | City of Santa Clara | Philip Cooke
While Baugh faced additional charges, including witness tampering and destruction of records, the other defendants were primarily charged with conspiracy related to cyberstalking and cyberstalking itself.
Between 2020 and 2024, all seven defendants pleaded guilty and received varying sentences.
The fall of those who tried to silence the Steiners
Jim Baugh worked with Wymer to “make an example” out of the Steiners. In the end, he became the cautionary tale himself.
In September 2022, he was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison.
Harville, for his part, received two years behind bars.
Cooke received 18 months in prison; Pop received 13 months; Stockwell was sentenced to two years of probation, with one year served in home confinement; Zea received the same sentence; and Gilbert received one year of probation.
A civil lawsuit that evolved into a battle to hold eBay directly accountable
While the criminal case against those involved moved through the courts, David and Ina Steiner began a legal battle of their own — this time against eBay alongside several of its former executives.
The Steiners sought financial damages, funding for free speech and nonprofit initiatives, corporate accountability measures, and other forms of relief.
The lawsuit became a long-running legal fight of its own. Years passed as both sides navigated the case, with a tentative settlement reached in February 2026 that eventually fell apart and pushed the matter back toward trial.
In June 2026, the Steiners asked a federal judge to return the case to the trial calendar. But within weeks, the direction of the legal battle changed once again.
A new agreement was reached later that month, and on July 28, the settlement was officially finalized.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Steiners will receive a total of $48.7 million in direct compensation. This figure comprises $46.15 million from eBay, $2 million from Devin Wenig, $500,000 from Wendy Jones, and $50,000 from Steve Wymer.
eBay further committed to donating $6 million to various charitable organizations, while Wenig agreed to contribute an additional $1 million toward efforts protecting First Amendment rights in Ina’s name.
But perhaps the most significant part of the settlement was what it did not include: a confidentiality clause.
After years of being unable to fully speak about the harassment campaign that upended their lives, the Steiners are now free to share their account of what happened.
Regret, responsibility and a company forced to answer
In a statement following the settlement, Wenig said the treatment of the Steiners was “antithetical to everything I stand for and believe in.”
He expressed sadness that the events occurred during his time as CEO and maintained that he was unaware of the harassment campaign.
eBay also condemned the actions of its former employees, describing the conduct as “wrong” and “reprehensible,” adding that such behavior did not represent the company’s culture.
The Steiners had achieved what they set out to accomplish through their civil lawsuit: holding those responsible for the harm they had endured accountable.
Despite their victory, the Steiners said they would never feel safe again
During court hearings connected to the criminal case, Ina described the experience of being threatened and stalked as “deeply painful.”
David added that the ordeal had permanently changed him.
“This was a bizarre, premeditated attack on our lives with buy-in at the highest levels of eBay,” he said during Baugh’s sentencing.
He also expressed concern that their case could become a blueprint for powerful organizations seeking to intimidate journalists who challenge them.
Ina said the campaign had taken away something most people rarely think about until it is gone: A sense of safety.
Their home — the place where they had built their independent publication and lived their lives — had become the center of a campaign designed to make them afraid.
“Imagine what they do to their employees,” a netizen remarked
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