Feds: Guilty Pleas Coming in Crazy eBay Scheme

4 ex-employees allegedly sent live spiders to a Massachusetts couple
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 23, 2020 6:00 PM CDT
Feds: Guilty Pleas Coming in Crazy eBay Scheme
In this file photo, an eBay sign sits in front of the company's headquarters in San Jose, Calif.   (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Four former eBay Inc. employees have agreed to plead guilty to their roles in a campaign of intimidation that included sending live spiders and cockroaches to the home of a Massachusetts couple who ran an online newsletter critical of the auction site, federal prosecutors said Wednesday, the AP reports. "Four former employees of #eBay are scheduled to plead guilty on Oct. 8 at 2pm via zoom in federal court in #Boston," according to a tweet from the official account of the US attorney's office in Massachusetts. "The defendants are charged with participating in a cyberstalking campaign that targeted a Massachusetts couple." The four expected to plead guilty are Brian Gilbert, 51; Stephanie Popp, 32; Stephanie Stockwell, 26; and Veronica Zea, 26, according to the Boston Globe.

All live in San Jose, California, except for Stockwell, who lives in Redwood City, California. They are among seven former eBay employees charged in the case, in which the Massachusetts couple had other disturbing items sent to their home, including a funeral wreath and a bloody pig Halloween mask. They are all charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with a witness. The employees also sent pornographic magazines with the husband’s name on them to their neighbor’s house, planned to break into the couple’s garage to install a GPS device on their car, and posted the couple's names and address online, advertising things like yard sales and encouraging strangers to knock on the door if the pair wasn't outside, officials said.

(More eBay stories.)

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