Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters), A former eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: security executive pleaded guilty Thursday to harassing a Massachusetts couple by sending them distressing home deliveries, including cockroaches.

David Harville was the former company director for global resilience. He pleaded guilty to five stalking and conspiracy charges in Boston Federal Court. This makes him the seventh ex-eBay worker to be charged with wrongdoing.

Harville, age 50, was scheduled to stand trial on May 31. However, he reached a plea bargain. Two weeks later, Harville, 50, was due to stand trial before he entered a plea deal with Jim Baugh (ex-Senior Director of Safety and Security at eBay).

Along with five other ex-EBay workers, the two men were accused of participating in a campaign to intimidate and harass the newly married couple. The campaign was behind EcommerceBytes, an online newsletter.

Two top executives expressed dissatisfaction with the newsletter. Devin Wenig was the former chief executive officer. According to prosecutors, Ina Steiner filed a lawsuit against eBay.

Wenig wasn’t charged, and he has repeatedly denied knowledge of the scheme. In a court filing on Saturday, the lawyer for the couple stated that settlement talks between eBay (and the Steiners) have not been successful.

Prosecutors stated that in August 2019, the Steiners started receiving harassing and anonymous private messages through Twitter (NYSE.) as well as unwanted and unwelcome deliveries to their residence, which also contained a bloody pork mask.

Prosecutors stated that Harville was in Massachusetts for an “op,” which Baugh called an attempt to set up a GPS system on the couple’s car.

Harville will be sentenced on October 6th and could spend 41-51 months behind bars under the federal sentencing guidelines. Assistant U.S. attorney Seth Kosto stated that Harville is scheduled to receive his sentencing. Peter Levitt the defense attorney said he would advocate for less.