eBay agreed to pay nearly $50 million to Massachusetts journalists David and Ina Steiner under a newly finalized settlement resolving a lawsuit over a 2019 cyberstalking campaign carried out by former company employees
Most of the defendants pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy and cyberstalking and were later sentenced to prison terms or home confinement.
The above includes several management and director positions. Glad individuals are being held responsible. Hope they are radioactive to companies going forward. As pointed out below, execs at the highest level are not doing time for this though.
No, it doesn’t. The convicted people were upper/middle management, the execs involved just have to pay some money now. Notably as a settlement and not a verdict.
James Baugh, of San Jose, California, who was eBay’s senior director of safety & security, and David Harville, of New York City, who was eBay’s director of global resiliency, are charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. The other former eBay employees charged are Stephanie Popp, former senior manager of global intelligence; Brian Gilbert, former senior manager of special operations for eBay’s Global Security Team; Stephanie Stockwell, former manager of eBay’s Global Intelligence Center; and Veronica Zea, a former eBay contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst in the Global Intelligence Center.
from a hyperlinked article
Seems like senior managers and directors. I don’t think these are fall guys. They seem like they were personally responsible for these things. I know corpo speak invents fancy job titles, but I don’t think it’s a situation where someone’s personal assistant is being used as a scapegoat. These people should have known better and had other options. I did see that one upper exec had to pay but I didn’t see any outline for what exactly they were charged with. I wish the articles did a better job of going into the details of punishments vs charges but I was just pointing out that actual time is being done since the title doesn’t mention it.
I’m not an expert at corpo terminology either, so maybe “middle management” is wrong, but I’m certain “senior director” is still not part of the executive ranks.
I don’t think the employees/managers were just fall guys, but I don’t believe for a second the execs knew nothing about what they did. And I find it suspicious that the employees seemingly plead guilty without a lawyer, as the article you’re quoting says.
I certainly didn’t mean to indicate csuite went to jail or anything, but it’s fair to disagree with my classification. I’m not super involved with that sort of thing. Will edit my comment to reflect that so that no one takes away the wrong thing.
Appreciate the wiki link. I kinda just clicked around on site and didn’t bother to search elsewhere.
I’m totally open to the idea that higher ups got away with a lot. They tend to, and likely even in this case where people are doing time they still got off way too lightly.
The above includes several management and director positions. Glad individuals are being held responsible. Hope they are radioactive to companies going forward. As pointed out below, execs at the highest level are not doing time for this though.
Edited for clarity.
No, it doesn’t. The convicted people were upper/middle management, the execs involved just have to pay some money now. Notably as a settlement and not a verdict.
Seems like senior managers and directors. I don’t think these are fall guys. They seem like they were personally responsible for these things. I know corpo speak invents fancy job titles, but I don’t think it’s a situation where someone’s personal assistant is being used as a scapegoat. These people should have known better and had other options. I did see that one upper exec had to pay but I didn’t see any outline for what exactly they were charged with. I wish the articles did a better job of going into the details of punishments vs charges but I was just pointing out that actual time is being done since the title doesn’t mention it.
I’m not an expert at corpo terminology either, so maybe “middle management” is wrong, but I’m certain “senior director” is still not part of the executive ranks.
Wikipedia has an overview about all of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_stalking_scandal
I don’t think the employees/managers were just fall guys, but I don’t believe for a second the execs knew nothing about what they did. And I find it suspicious that the employees seemingly plead guilty without a lawyer, as the article you’re quoting says.
Director is upper management, one step below executive and typically report directly to a C-suite member.
It means different things at different firms, but as a management (rather than board) role, it’s as @village604@adultswim.fan says.
Source: I was one. Now I’m in a senior tech staff role in a very different organization. Far less of a snake pit.
Thank you, I edited my comment.
I certainly didn’t mean to indicate csuite went to jail or anything, but it’s fair to disagree with my classification. I’m not super involved with that sort of thing. Will edit my comment to reflect that so that no one takes away the wrong thing.
Appreciate the wiki link. I kinda just clicked around on site and didn’t bother to search elsewhere.
I’m totally open to the idea that higher ups got away with a lot. They tend to, and likely even in this case where people are doing time they still got off way too lightly.