Ex-eBay CLO Marie Oh Huber Given $6.5M Severance Despite Cyberstalking Suit & Other Corporate Legal Woes
Ex-eBay Chief Legal Officer Marie Oh Huber was paid ~$6.5 million in severance when she departed the company last year amidst ongoing cyberstalking lawsuit and other legal troubles at the company, according to eBay's 2025 annual proxy statement.
Oh Huber stepped down in June 2024, after almost 9 years at the company, with CEO Jamie Iannone saying she was "pursuing a new chapter in her career, while exploring personal interests and passions."
Liz Morton
Oh Huber's continued presence at the company had raised many questions as eBay increasingly came under legal and regulatory scrutiny on a wide variety of fronts that fell under her purview and time at the company, including litigation regarding the 2019 cyberstalking and harassment of journalists Ina and David Steiner of EcommerceBytes.
The shocking corporate plot sought to change the content of the Steiners' reporting through harassment, intimidation, and a "White Knight Strategy" wherein eBay security personnel hoped to gain their assistance to unmask the identity of Fidomaster/unsuckEBAY, a frequent commenter and source who also sparked the ire of top executives at the company.
Liz Morton
Senior Director Security Jim Baugh, Director of Global Resiliency David Harville, Security Manager Philip Cooke, Senior Manager of Global Intelligence Stephanie Popp, Global Intelligence Manager Stephanie Stockwell, Senior Manager of Special Operations Brian Gilbert, and a contracted security analyst Veronica Zea all pleaded guilty and have been sentenced or are awaiting sentencing for their roles in the crimes.
The Steiners have also filed a civil case against the criminal defendants plus ex-CEO Devin Wenig, ex-Communications Chief Steve Wymer, ex-SVP Global Operations Wendy Jones, eBay Inc. and security company Progressive F.O.R.C.E Concepts - alleging communications from the very top of the c-suite directed and egged on the harassment.
While Oh Huber was not named either criminally or civilly in these cases, court documents reveal she engaged in conversations about efforts to get Twitter to "kill" unsuckeBay and was cced on troubling internal correspondence, including Wymer's infamous "Whatever. It. Takes" email.
In an August 6, 2019 email chain, Wenig expressed his desire to see the unsuckEBAY Twitter account shut down and assigned the task to Baugh, with Wymer and Oh Huber copied.
Wymer said he had previously discussed the issue with Baugh and explored all angles with Twitter, but had been unable to get @unsuckEBAY killed.
Oh Huber echoed the frustration, but her and another member of eBay legal, Aaron Johnson (who has since been promoted to Chief Ethics Officer) advised there wasn't a strong claim to appeal to Twitter.
Baugh responded that his team had been investigating for weeks and he was close to discovering the identity and location of unsuckEBAY.
Oh Huber accepted that answer with a smiley face emoji, saying she would hold off on pursuing further legal steps in light of Baugh's investigation.
Wymer responded again the next day, making it clear how utterly vexed by the situation he was and that any effort to "solve" the problem should be explored...Whatever. It. Takes.
Given the criminal events that occurred following this email, it would appear neither Johnson nor Oh Huber took action in their respective positions to make sure eBay's head of security handled executive "vexation" within established legal bounds or reported this troubling and inappropriate communication from Wymer through any of the internal compliance or ethics channels which existed at that time - or, if they did, those channels obviously failed.
As a result of eBay's internal investigation into the criminal activity, the Safety & Security unit was moved from the Global Operations division (under Jones' purview) to the Legal Department (under Oh Huber) in 2020.
Notably, SVP Global Operations Wendy Jones was allowed to continue serving in her role at the company over a year after the cyberstalking scandal occurred on her watch - and when she left in December 2020, she collected an $11M+ severance package, in addition to the $11M bonus Wenig had granted her in 2018, $8M of which was a retention bonus.
Also notably, rather than the generic reference to existing members of the board or named executive officers that was in Wenig's separation letter (which granted him a ~$57 Million exit package despite being fired for his role in the cyberstalking scandal), the non-disparagement clause in Jones' letter specifically calls out only two executives by name - Jamie Iannone and Marie Oh Huber.
Liz Morton
That wording is particularly odd when you consider a more generic blanket provision applicable to all board members and executive officers would have included Iannone, Oh Huber and others without drawing undue attention to any specific people.
Which begs the question - what do Iannone and Oh Huber know that was worthy of such explicit terms in this agreement?
In more recent years, Oh Huber also oversaw eBay's legal responses to a DEA lawsuit alleging pill presses sold on the site violated the Controlled Substances Act, an EPA lawsuit seeking to hold the company liable for sales of illegal chemicals and emissions-control chat devices, due diligence failures in the TCGPlayer acquisition which led to the formation of eBay's first union, multiple NLRB complaints and lawsuits filed by ex-employees alleging discrimination and retaliation, and the negotiation of a deferred criminal prosecution agreement which required eBay to admit to multiple federal felonies in the cyberstalking case, pay a $3M penalty fine and undergo 3 years of independent compliance monitoring.
Liz Morton
eBay's 2025 annual proxy statement says Oh Huber's severance package was owed under the terms of her 2015 offer letter which provided that she would be entitled to severance under just two scenarios: the company terminated her without cause or she resigned for “good reason,” such as a material reduction in pay or authority.
Importantly, Oh Huber would not have been entitled to severance if she left on her own, unless she was able to make the case her role had diminished - which would be a difficult argument considering the significant, ongoing legal issues she was tasked with guiding eBay through at the time of her departure.
In multiple places, the filing says Oh Huber’s “employment terminated,” which doesn’t make clear exactly what the reasons were for her to step down.
That may suggest, like Wenig before her, this could have been a "negotiated resignation", carefully designed to allow the Board to still pay out Oh Huber's severance while avoiding additional public scrutiny.
After Oh Huber's departure, VP & Deputy General Counsel Markets & Privacy Ken Ebank stepped in as interim General Counsel until eBay hired Samantha Wellington as Chief Legal Officer in September 2024.
Liz Morton
Since leaving eBay, Oh Huber continues to serve on the board of Portland General Electric, is a lecturer at Stanford Law School and a fellow at the university’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance, and has been making the speaking rounds at various conferences and events, including a recent appearance at an American College of Governance Counsel panel on what to expect from activism in 2025 and how boards can be prepared - an ironic subject given the catalyzing effect that Elliott Management's activist campaign against eBay in early 2019 played in the cyberstalking events.
Oh Huber would also be subject to eBay's standard clawback policy for officers employed at the VP level or above, which states that incentive compensation may be forfeited or required to be paid back in instances of "a material violation of the Company's Code of Business Conduct" or action that causes "material financial or reputational harm to the Company."
In theory, that could put her ~$6.5M severance in jeopardy if her actions surrounding the cyberstalking case receive more scrutiny - though considering eBay's Board of Directors explicitly decided not to pursue clawing back Wenig's severance, that outcome seems unlikely.
