2 Former eBay Employees Indicted In Boston

NATICK, MA — Two of the seven former eBay employees accused of having part in a cyberstalking case involving a Natick couple were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Boston, according to federal prosecutors.

James Baugh, 45, of San Jose, Calif., eBay’s former security director, and David Harville, 48, of New York City, eBay’s former director of global resiliency, were indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and through facilities of interstate commerce, two counts each of stalking through interstate travel, two counts of stalking through facilities of interstate commerce. Baugh was indicted on two counts each and Harville one count each of witness tampering, destruction, alteration, and falsification of records in a federal investigation. The two were charged by criminal complaint and arrested on June 15.

Former fellow eBay employees Philip Cooke, 55, Brian Gilbert, 52, Stephanie Popp, 32, Veronica Zea, 26, and Stephanie Stockwell, 26, all previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

The employees concocted a three-part plan to torment the Natick couple after they published an article in their newsletter about a lawsuit involving eBay executives, prosecutors said.
The first part involved mailing items like a fetal pig, pornography and a bloody Halloween mask to the Natick couple's home. Later, the employees threatened the couple online, and even visited their home, prosecutors said.

"Baugh, Harville, and Zea (and later Popp) drove to the victims' home in Natick several times, with Harville and Baugh allegedly intending to break into the victims' garage and install a GPS tracking device on their car," the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston said in a news release. "As protection in the event if they were stopped by police, Baugh and Harville allegedly carried false documents purporting to show that they were investigating the victims as 'Persons of Interest' who had threatened eBay executives."

Among other things, the indictment alleges that Harville flew from California to Boston to place the couple's car under surveillance and purchased tools intending to break in to their garage; lied to an eBay investigator who was responding to the Natick Police’s request for assistance; and deleted evidence from his company-issued cell phone after learning of the criminal investigation.

The Natick couple noticed the surveillance, however, and contacted Natick police, touching off a federal investigation.

The men face as many as 20 years in prison for the charges of witness tampering and destruction, tampering, altercation and fabrication of records in a federal investigation.

Previously: 2 Former eBay Employees Plead Guilty In Natick.