eBay, Ex-Execs Face Trial In Cyberstalking Scandal As Summary Judgment Ruling Leaves Key Claims Intact
UPDATE 11-17-25
Victims Ina & David Steiner of EcommerceBytes decry delayed justice as eBay cyberstalking scandal civil trial date is once again moved, now scheduled for March 2, 2026.
Liz Morton
UPDATE 10-23-25
Ex-CEO Devin Wenig requests to have current January 5, 2026 trial date moved to April due to attorney Abbe Lowell's scheduling conflicts.
Those conflicting, high profile cases are:
- Trump v Cook - Mr. Lowell represents Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook in litigation arising from the Trump administration’s efforts to fire her.
- US v David Huerta - Mr. Lowell is co-lead trial counsel for David Huerta, California president of the Service Employees International Union who was charged with obstruction, resistance or opposition to a federal officer for action during an ICE raid.
- US v Letitia James - Mr. Lowell represents New York Attorney General Letitia James in her recent indictment on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
Both the plaintiffs, Ina and David Steiner, and defendant eBay Inc. oppose the request the delay the trial.
UPDATE 9-24-25
Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler has submitted her Alternative Dispute Resolution report, advising Judge Patti Saris that mediation continues to be unsuccessful and "further efforts to settle this case at this time are unlikely to be productive", so the trial should remain on the schedule for January 2026.
UPDATE 9-5-25
In a status conference/Daubert hearing held today, Judge Patti Saris set an official date of January 5, 2026 for the first trial in the eBay cyberstalking scandal lawsuit.
The hearing was in person and a transcript is not yet available, but from ruling notes it appears Judge Saris allowed security personnel who pleaded to criminal charges to be split into a separate trial, but Wenig, Wymer, Jones and eBay will still be tried together.
The matter has also been referred to a Magistrate Judge for Alternative Dispute Resolution to see if a settlement can be worked out before trial. Stay tuned for updates!
UPDATE 8-29-25
The plaintiffs, Ina and David Steiner, have informed the court they are withdrawing their economic damages claims, making arguments and a pending ruling regarding whether expert testimony from Kristin Kucsma will be allowed moot.
The Steiners had sought ~$5 Million in lost consulting fees and another ~$10 Million for loss of goodwill and value of their business, EcommerceBytes.
Judge Saris previously ruled that the Steiners had failed to prove certain portions of the compensatory damage claims, taking the ~$5 Million in alleged lost consulting fees off the table, so this withdrawal will remove the additional ~$10M, cutting out a total of ~$15M.
Their other claims for non-economic and punitive damages remain intact and, based on other recent updates in the suit, could still potentially represent ~$200 Million in total compensation being sought if the litigation continues to trial.
US District Court Judge Patti Saris has cleared the way for eBay cyberstalking lawsuit with potential nine figure payout to head to trial after paring back some claims and defendants in summary judgment while allowing others to move forward.
The bizarre corporate plot unfolded in the summer of 2019, targeting Ina and David Steiner for their reporting on eBay at EcommerceBytes and seeking to unmask the identity of unsuckEBAY (also known as FidoMaster/Dan Davis) an anonymous source and commenter who sparked the ire of top executives at the company.
Court records revealed sordid details of the harassment that included disturbing deliveries of live insects, bloody pig masks and funeral wreaths as well as threatening messages, doxxing that ultimately escalated to in-person stalking and an attempted break-in at the hands of high-level eBay security personnel led by Senior Security Director Jim Baugh.
Liz Morton
Baugh, Director of Global Resiliency David Harville, Security Manager Philip Cooke, Sr Manager Special Operations Brian Gilbert, Sr Manager Global Intelligence Stephanie Popp, Global Intelligence Manager Stephanie Stockwell, and Security Analyst Veronica Zea contracted through security company Progressive F.O.R.C.E Concepts all pleaded guilty and have been sentenced for their roles in these crimes.
The ongoing ~$500 Million civil lawsuit named the seven criminal defendants plus eBay, ex-CEO Devin Wenig, ex-Communications Chief Steve Wymer, ex-SVP Global Operations Wendy Jones, and security company Progressive F.O.R.C.E Concepts (PFC), claiming direction and support for the harassment came from the very top of eBay's c-suite.
The executive and corporate defendants had sought to get some or all of the claims thrown out at summary judgment, with Wenig, Wymer and Jones wanting to be released from the lawsuit before it goes to trial, arguing the Steiners' claims against them are largely based on information from Baugh's criminal sentencing letter, which would be inadmissible hearsay.
But those arguments were upended when the Steiners struck a deal with Baugh, agreeing to release him from the ~$200 Million portion of damages they sought against him in exchange for his testimony against the executives.
Liz Morton
In response, the executives sought to get a protective order in the case which had prevented any discovery into Baugh's alleged CIA background lifted, arguing it was crucial to their defenses to be able to prove that Baugh had lied to them and eBay and hidden his past government service when hired at the company.
Liz Morton
Judge Saris denied requests to lift the protective order and all of Baugh's deposition has also now been sealed and deemed confidential, keeping those details out of the public record.
In a 54 page ruling issues this week, Saris has now also ruled on the motions for summary judgment, narrowing the scope of the claims and defendants to clear the path for settlement or an eventual jury trial.
Saris found the Steiners did not adequately show that Progressive F.O.R.C.E Concepts, the security company through which eBay had contracted security analyst Veronica Zea, was liable for the claims brought against it and ruled in PFC's favor, releasing the company from this lawsuit.
As for eBay, Saris denied some claims against the company while keeping others alive and allowing them to move forward to trial for a jury to decide.
Several claims for defamation including one of two Craigslist ads posted by eBay personell targeting the Steiners as well as threatening tweets, unwanted email newsletter sign ups, and comments calling Ina Steiner's reporting "shoddy", "biased,"bush league", "drivel" and "BS" were denied, while defamation claims related to the second Craiglist ad which falsely purported to be the Steiners looking for "swinging" partners will be allowed to continue.
Judge Saris also kicked the claim against eBay for Negligent Retention, finding the Steiners had not provided sufficient evidence showing eBay had any knowledge of the criminal activities Baugh was undertaking, but has allowed the claims for Negligent Supervision of Baugh to continue saying "a genuine factual dispute exists as to whether Baugh was adequately supervised during the late summer of 2019 when much of the alleged harassment occurred."
Claims for False Imprisonment and Ratification were allowed to continue, but Judge Saris found that the Steiners had failed to prove certain portions of the compensatory damages they are seeking, like $5 Million in supposed lost consulting fees.
Plaintiffs seek nearly $5 million in damages for a purported “lost business opportunity for consulting work.”...
...Here, Plaintiffs’ estimate of lost consulting fees is based on an hourly rate of $250 to $450. Ina Steiner had previously consulted only once, more than twenty-five years ago, and cannot recall her compensation.
When asked how she arrived at her hourly rate estimate, she answered: “When we were filling out the interrogatories, we had to come up with a number...[I]t was my best estimate.” She acknowledged that “there wasn’t enormous research...that went into this figure.”
David Steiner initially estimated an hourly consulting rate of $150,but in a later supplemental interrogatory response increased it to the same figure based on “some cursory searches for related services.” Like Ina, David had not performed consulting work in more than two decades.
Prior to the events of August 2019, Plaintiffs had not taken any steps towards establishing a consulting practice because they “hadn’t sort of decided that that was something that [they] wanted to do at that time.”
On this record, no reasonable jury could conclude that Plaintiffs’ claimed consulting opportunity was sufficiently developed or that lost profits were ascertainable to a reasonable degree of certainty.
Source: Steiner et al v. eBay Inc. et al 1:21-cv-11181 Doc 711
The Steiners are also seeking another ~$10 Million in compensatory damages for loss of goodwill and business value of EcommerceBytes.
eBay argues that amount is based solely on speculation and the Steiners have provided no actual evidence for how they arrived at that valuation, relying instead on expert testimony which eBay is seeking to block.
Judge Saris will decide whether to allow that expert testimony at a separate hearing slated for September 5th.
The Steiners' claims against the executive defendants include defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, trespass, false imprisonment, violation of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, and conspiracy.
The ruling lets those executive defendants (Wenig, Wymer and Jones) off the hook for the alleged defamatory statements, but will allow the rest of the claims for intentional torts as well as Negligent Supervision and Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress to continue to trial.
In total, the Steiners had originally sought ~$700 Million in combined punitive and compensatory damages, portioned out amongst the various defendants.
As first reported by Value Added Resource in December 2024, eBay had tried to cut out the ~$466 Million in punitive damages, but Judge Saris denied their appeal of her earlier ruling which had allowed punitive damages to remain in play.
Liz Morton
Since then, various decisions had whittled the total amount down to about $500 Million, then the Steiners' deal with Baugh took another $200 Million off the table.
This latest ruling removes Progressive F.O.R.C.E Concepts from the litigation (which had originally been tagged for $50 Million in potential damages) and takes the $5 Million in compensatory damages for lost consulting fees out of the equation.
The rest of the compensation being sought by the Steiners has not been broken out per claim in court documents, so it's unclear just how much else remains in play with some claims being denied and others allowed to move forward at this time, but based on decisions so far, it could potentially be down to ~$200 Million or less.
While a tentative trial date was previously set for March of this year, that has since been pushed out to an unspecified time by delays and extensions - though it is still expected to happen sometime in late 2025 or early 2026, assuming no settlement is reached.
Judge Saris has frequently urged the parties to engage in mediation to work toward settling at least some of the civil claims, saying in a hearing last years, "I don't see any way in which a jury could decide this with the number of defendants...I just don't have a big enough courtroom for that number and it's confusing to a jury."
She suggested if the lawsuit goes to trial, it may need to be split up due to the size and scope of the complaint, with claims against eBay, the c-suite executives, and the criminal defendants tried in seperate groups in an effort to address the logistical challenges posed by such a complex case.
All efforts at mediation so far have failed, with both parties unable to come to an agreement about the amount and types of damages that should be considered - but that could change now that the ruling on summary judgment has largely settled those questions.
However, in a statement to the Boston Globe, one of the Steiners' attorneys Andrew Finkelstein, said the couple is looking forward to a trial, which could indicate they are not interested in settling this without a jury.
“The jury will be asked to fully and fairly compensate the Steiners for being subjected to eBay’s terror campaign that attempted to silence their free speech rights, and to punish eBay for their egregious actions.”
Stay tuned for updates as the eBay cyberstalking lawsuit continues and remember - VAR+ subscribers get exclusive access to the Value Added Resource eBay cyberstalking case document archive!
