EBay to pay $3 million after employees sent live spiders, funeral wreath and fetal pig to critics
EBay will pay $3 million to resolve criminal charges stemming from several of its former employees’ sending live spiders, cockroaches and a fetal pig to a Massachusetts couple who wrote a newsletter critical of the company in 2019, officials said Thursday.
EBay will pay $3 million to resolve criminal charges stemming from several of its former employees’ sending live spiders, cockroaches and a fetal pig to a Massachusetts couple who wrote a newsletter critical of the company in 2019, officials said Thursday.
The online auction giant was charged criminally with two counts of stalking through interstate travel, two counts of stalking through electronic communications services, witness tampering and obstruction of justice, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a statement.
As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, eBay has agreed to pay the penalty, which is the maximum fine allowed by law for the six felonies, prosecutors said.
The company must also retain an independent corporate compliance monitor for three years and will have to make changes to its compliance program, according to federal authorities.
“Today’s settlement holds e-Bay criminally and financially responsible for emotionally, psychologically, and physically terrorizing the publishers of an online newsletter out of fear that bad publicity would adversely impact their Fortune 500 company,” said Jodi Cohen, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division.
Rating: 5