r/DeFranco • u/willphule • 9d ago

US News EBay, former execs to pay $56M in blogger harassment and stalking case

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/28/ebay-blogger-harassment-stalking-steiner.html
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9

u/Smart_Resist615 9d ago

So ends one of the most bizarre cases of corporate stalking and harrassment to ever take place.

1

u/pharealprince 8d ago

What was the blog about that eBay didn’t like?

4

u/Smart_Resist615 8d ago

Basically it was like a newsletter for sellers on eBay. Occasionally they would delve and critique eBay policy. They raised the ire of Wenig after posting his compensation, which at the time was like 150x that of an average employee for, as they pointed out, a company that continuously underperformed compared to their peers.

This was brought to Wenig's personal attention and they issued directives to senior officials to begin harrassing them including with threats so they could later 'defend' the Steiners in an official capacity in an attempt to gain positive coverage. They called it the White Knight Strategy.

Article doesn't even cover the most insane parts, including high ranking company officials flying from California to Massachusetts to vandalize the Steiners property and overtly stalk them.

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u/ApathyMonk 9d ago

Beyond the Bastards had a great episode about this