Former eBay executive pleads guilty for his role in a bizarre harassment campaign involving a pig fetus, porn, and a book on surviving the death of a spouse

• A former Ebay executive admitted to his role in a conspiracy to harass a pair of bloggers in 2019.
• The former director of global resiliency is the last of the seven people involved to plead guilty.

The final defendant in a bizarre conspiracy has pled guilty nearly two years after he and six other former Ebay employees were charged with harassing the authors of a newsletter that was critical of the company.

David Harville, eBay's former director of global resiliency, admitted last week to his role in a scheme in 2019 in which he and his co-conspirators targeted anonymous messages and disturbing deliveries toward Ina and David Steiner, who published the newsletter EcommerceBytes. The guilty plea signals the end of a high-profile case that brought negative publicity for eBay and resulted in the company firing the employees involved.

The sent items included a bloody pig Halloween mask, a preserved fetal pig, a funeral wreath, and a book on surviving the loss of a spouse. A shipment of pornography was sent to a neighbors house, but addressed to David's name.

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The harassment also included a doxxing campaign in which the Steiner's home was posted online inviting visitors to knock on the door, and an unpaid pizza delivery order of $70 to the couple's house at 4:30 in the morning.

Harville also flew from California to Massachusetts with the intent to break into the Steiner's home to install a GPS tracker on their car, and even concocted a false story for the local police, according to the complaint.

The Steiners told the Boston Globe they felt trapped in their own home due to the harassment. "You couldn't shut the feeling of terror off, there's just no off switch," David Steiner said.

Ebay said it learned of the scheme from law enforcement in August 2019, launched an internal investigation, and fired Harville and the others in September. The investigation found that former CEO Devin Wenig had made "inappropriate" communications, but found no evidence that he knew about or authorized the campaign.

The crimes of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses each carry maximum penalties of five years' imprisonment, three years' supervised release, and fines of $250,000.