A former Ebay manager has been jailed for a year and a half for his role in a macabre intimidation campaign against two critical journalists.

A US federal court in Boston found the 56-year-old man guilty on Tuesday.

He is the first of six former employees of the online trading platform who are alleged to have been involved in the campaign.

It was directed against the two operators of the blog EcommerceBytes, whose critical reporting on Ebay should be stopped.

Bastian Benrath

Editor in business.

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According to the prosecution, the perpetrators tried to intimidate the couple with bizarre packages. Among other things, they sent them live cockroaches and other insects, a bloody pig mask, and a book on how to cope with the death of your partner. They also threatened the two in electronic messages. Some of the accused are also said to have driven to the journalists' home, scouted it out and planned to install a location sensor on the couple's car. "The idea that all these adult people sit together and come up with this plan is incomprehensible to me," said the judge when the sentence was pronounced. The behavior of the accused was "simply insane".

The now convicted manager, who held a middle position in eBay's security department, has admitted to having attended a meeting in which measures were planned against the journalists. However, he spoke out against their implementation and did not expect the steps to actually be implemented, he said in court. He also had a drinking problem - according to him, caused by the culture on Ebay, in which it was customary to drink with colleagues in the office in the morning.

The campaign apparently extended beyond the convicts to the highest management circles: eBay's former chief security director, who denies the allegations, is considered to be the main planner.

According to media reports, the then CEO of Ebay, Devin Wenig, is said to have written in a text message to his security chief about the author of EcommerceBytes that it was “time to neutralize her”.

Little surprisingly stepped down from office in September 2019 without making a comprehensive statement.

Ebay fired all of the accused employees last summer.

The company said at the time that an internal investigation did not reveal any evidence of Little's involvement in the campaign.

Neither Ebay nor Wenig were personally charged in court.