Philippe Cooke, former senior manager of security operations for eBay’s Global Security Team, was sentenced on July 28, 2021 to serve a total of 36 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to commit witness tampering.

He was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on each charge, with the two sentences to be served concurrently, according to an order issued in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts and was also fined $15,000 and sentenced to supervised release of three years after he gets out of prison.

The Department of Justice alleged that in 2019, Cooke helped plan and attempt to cover up the stalking of Ina and David Steiner of Natick, Massachusetts, who run the news website EcommerceBytes. Cooke was one of seven eBay employees accused of harassment involving sending threatening messages and deliveries of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath and a bloody pig mask to the couple’s home.

eBay executives were angered by EcommerceByte’s news coverage about eBay. Text messages show that the previous Chief Communications Officer Steven Wymer wrote, “We are going to crush this lady,” referring to editor Ina Steiner. In another text, the previous CEO Devin Wenig allegedly wrote to Wymer, “Take hear down.” Wenig and Wymer were not charged but Wymer was fired and Wenig resigned.