A filing submitted last Friday in two trade publication journalists’ case against eBay and nearly a dozen employees, some of them high-ranking, said that the court should heed admissions by former eBay Senior Director of Safety & Security James Baugh in his criminal case because they contradict statements made in defense of the terrorizing conduct plaintiffs Ina and David Steiner said they experienced at the hands of the defendants.
Allegedly, the online auction site’s CEO, its vice president of communications, and other managers, operations personnel, and contractors agreed to engage in a stalking campaign targeting the Steiners, with the goal of “neutralizing” them and stifling their reporting. The complaint contains examples of communications between the defendants; for example, “[w]e are going to crush this lady,” and “[Ina] is out with a hot piece on the litigation [between eBay and Amazon]. If we are ever going to take her down . . . now is the time.”
The case has roots in 2019 when the plaintiffs, a married couple who reside in Massachusetts and operate a small e-commerce trade publication called EcommerceBytes, allegedly came under the scrutiny of eBay. In a sentencing memo Baugh submitted to the District of Massachusetts, the court overseeing both the criminal and civil cases, they are about “bizarre and disturbing criminal conduct.”
The complaint explains that when EcommerceBytes published articles questioning eBay practices, including, for example, its lavish expenditure on a replica of Walker’s, a popular Manhattan bar, on its campus, the defendants reacted badly.
During August 2020, actions taken against the Steiners allegedly included an “unrelenting stream of threats to kill, disturbing deliveries, as well as the physical surveillance.” The government’s summary of deliveries ordered to the Steiner’s home included “a book on surviving the death of a spouse, a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, a funeral wreath, and various live insects. The harassment also featured Craigslist posts on the internet invited the public for sexual encounters or estate sales at the [Steiner’s] home.”
Following several investigations, the individual defendants were terminated from eBay and charged criminally. For the Steiners’ part, they claim they faced and continue to face anxiety, deep concerns about their physical safety, and fear that they are being followed and tracked.
The complaint states claims for various torts including stalking, false imprisonment, and vandalism as well as a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act claim and a defamation claim.
The defendants moved to dismiss, citing the plaintiffs’ failure to state claims for their causes of action and their purported inappropriate reliance on extrinsic evidence, “much of which they grossly mischaracterize.”
After being granted permission to file last week’s supplemental opposition to the defendants’ dismissal motion, the plaintiffs put forward additional information including sentencing memoranda, Baugh’s letter of attrition, and transcripts of the sentencing hearings. The civil case is before Judge Douglas P. Woodlock.
The Steiners are represented by the Law Office of Rosemary Scapicchio and their business by the Law Office of Jillise McDonough. eBay is represented by Sidley Austin LLP and the individual defendants are represented separately.
