I think that Steiners are owed at least $57M. And you?

A little over a year ago, news broke that senior members of the eBay security team had been harassing a suburban Boston couple. The Steiners - Ina and David - publish a website devoted to the goings and comings of the eCommerce industry. The website, EcommerceBytes, is the Steiners' business, and they run it out of their home. eBay is a frequent focus of their news and commentary. (Pink Slip blogged about this here.)

Somewhere along the line, EcommerceBytes caught the eye of then eBay CEO Devin Wenig. Among the things that Wenig got his shorts in a knot over was:

...an April 10, 2019, article titled “eBay CEO Devin Wenig Earns 152 Times That of Employees.”

Rather than actually do anything about his making 152 times more than the average eBay employee, Devin Wenig trickled his displeasure down to Steve Wymer, then eBay's SVP for communications. Wymer, in turn, passed the issue off to James Baugh, the man formerly in charge of worldwide security.

You'll notice that Wenig, Wymer, and James are all "formers."

Although he claims that he was not aware of the harassment campaign directed at the Steiners, Wenig was more of less the trigger man. His thin skin set off the cascade of nastiness. For his trouble, Wenig got a walk-away package worth $57 million, pretty much underscoring the Steiners' point that Wenig is paid too damned much.

Wymer was also fired for the role he played. He is not facing any criminal repercussions. 

Not that Wenig and Wymer are innocent bystanders in all that happened. In referring to Ina Steiner, Wenig had said, "Take her down." Wymer, for his part, texted Wenig, "We are going to crush this lady."

“I want to see ashes,” he said at one point. “Whatever it takes.” (Source: NY Times)

But neither Wenig nor Wymer was directly implicated in the evil doing. Because, you know, "take her down," "crush," and "ashes," well, that's all metaphorically speaking speech. 

Anyway, since the harassment against the Steiners has been revealed, six eBay employees and one contractor have been criminally charged, including Baugh. Last week, the first of the eBay Seven to be sentenced. Philip Cooke, who had been a senior manager for security ops under Baugh, received 18 months in prison for his handiwork. The others are awaiting sentencing/trial.

Harassment does not quite do it for describing what the Steiners went through. 

Sure, some of the harassing deeds were minor. A bit prankish in nature, amateurishly so: the middle of the night unordered pizza delivery; signing them up for newsletters for "Heather's Irritable Bowel Syndrome News" and the like. 

But some of the newsletters weren't as "amusing" as "Heather's IBS News." Porn newsletters. Bondage. Porn sent to neighbors in the Steiners' name. 

Inevitably, Twitter got in on the act, with attacks from a new anonymous account made against Ina Steiner. 

Some of what the Steiners were subjected to was criminal but somewhat minor league vandalism. Like spraypainting the word "Fidomaster" (apparently another online eBay adversary) on the Steiners' fence. 

But a lot of what the Steiners have had to put up with is just godawful, scary, terrible  beyond belief. 

Someone ordered a fetal pig for them. Fortunately, there was a question about the delivery address, so the Steiners were able to fend that one off. But they did take delivery of a "mask of a bloody pig face, like the one worn by a crazed killer in the “Saw” horror movie series."

Other unwanted deliveries started to arrive:

 One day it was a book for David called “Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Spouse.” Ina said she Googled the return address of another package, and when she discovered the sender was called Carolina Biological Supply Co., she feared they might need to call a hazmat team. A call to the company revealed the package was filled with live spiders and fly larvae; they turned it over to the police.

A few days later, a florist arrived with a sympathy wreath for David. The driver told the Steiners he had come from Central Square in Cambridge and was instructed to leave the $255 wreath by their back door without ringing the bell. (Source: Boston Globe)

Things escalated from there. Black vans with NY plates started cruising by their home. And following them when they left. 

“I can still feel how every hair on the back of my neck stood up,” David said, as the van followed him for several blocks.

The Steiners were being terrorized but, fortunately, eBay' crack harassment team was pretty much The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. David Steiner was eventually able to get a clear picture of the license plate of one of the stalking vans, and it was traced to an eBay contractor. 

Amidst all this, eBay was reaching out to the Steiners, telling them that they were concerned about the harassment they were dealing with, and would try to help them resolve it. Nice!

Eventually, the FBI stepped in, and the arrests and charges began.

eBay has apologized to the Steiners and, in the wake of a civil lawsuit filed by the Steiners on July 21:

...eBay issued a new statement, again apologizing to the couple and saying the company would “do what is fair and appropriate to try to address what the Steiners went through.”

I would think that what's "fair and appropriate" is, at minimum, the equivalent to the $57 million that eBay gave Wenig. 

Meanwhile, Steve Wymer - who now goes by "Steve W" on Linkedin - is the President & CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley. Perhaps not fully landing on his feet. I'm guessing the new gig isn't quite as lucrative as eBay was for him. But he has landed. 

Then there's Devin Wenig. Ain't no one or no thing gonna take him down. He's still on the board of GM, and was recently added to Salesforce's Global Advisory Board. And he gets to sit around running his charitable trust. That's what a golden parachute can get you!

As for the the eBay Seven, let's see where their career trajectories take them once they've been tried and/or sentenced.