In this Oct. 17, 2012, file photo, an eBay sign sits in front of the company's headquarters in San Jose, Calif. On Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020, federal prosecutors said four former eBay Inc. employees had agreed to plead guilty to their roles in a campaign of intimidation that included sending live spiders and cockroaches to the home of a Massachusetts couple who ran an online newsletter highly critical of the auction site. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
Four former eBay Inc. employees have agreed to plead guilty to their roles in a campaign of intimidation that included sending live spiders and cockroaches to the home of a Massachusetts couple who ran an online newsletter critical of the auction site, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
“Four former employees of #eBay are scheduled to plead guilty on Oct. 8 at 2pm via zoom in federal court in #Boston,” according to a tweet from the official account of the U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts. “The defendants are charged w/ participating in a cyberstalking campaign that targeted a Massachusetts couple.”
The four expected to plead guilty are Brian Gilbert, 51; Stephanie Popp, 32; Stephanie Stockwell, 26; and Veronica Zea, 26, according to The Boston Globe.
All live in San Jose, California, except for Stockwell, who lives in Redwood City, California.
They are among seven former eBay employees charged in the case, in which the Massachusetts couple had other disturbing items sent to their home, including a funeral wreath and a bloody pig Halloween mask.
They are all charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with a witness. Their lawyers either declined to comment or didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment Wednesday.
The employees also sent pornographic magazines with the husband’s name on them to their neighbor’s house, planned to break into the couple’s garage to install a GPS device on their car, and posted the couple’s names and address online, advertising things like yard sales and encouraging strangers to knock on the door if the pair wasn’t outside, officials said.
The suspects engaged in a “systematic campaign fueled by the resources of a Fortune 500 company to emotionally and psychologically terrorize this middle-aged couple in Natick,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said at a news conference when charges were announced in June.
An internal investigation was launched after San Jose, California-based eBay was notified by law enforcement of “suspicious actions by its security personnel,” company officials wrote in a prepared statement. The employees were ultimately fired, the company said.
Popp was a senior manager of global intelligence at eBay; Gilbert was senior manager of special operations for eBay’s Global Security Team; Stockwell was manager of eBay’s Global Intelligence Center, and Zea was an eBay contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst in the Global Intelligence Center. Authorities say they were working at eBay at the time of the alleged harassment.
Court documents say the couple was targeted after their newsletter published an article in August 2019 about a lawsuit filed by eBay accusing Amazon of poaching its sellers.
Stocks closed near session lows Thursday as investors digested Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comment about a potential 50 basis point rate hike at the central bank's May meeting. Powell's announcement also sent the 10-year and other yields higher, with the benchmark 10-year rate hitting its highest level since late 2018. Victor Zhang, CIO at American Century Investments, joins Closing Bell to discuss today's close, Powell's comments, the Fed's moves on inflation, and more.
Tesla has continued to beat expectations as illustrated by its last quarter earnings despite issues in Shanghai, China. Dan Ives, the managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, joined Cheddar News to talk about the resilience of Tesla. "I thought they were almost Cinderella-like numbers," he said about the delivery numbers. "They are performing just miles ahead of any auto player, and that's why the stock is doing what it's doing. In my opinion, they're expanding their lead in EVs, even in this Category 5 hurricane that we're seeing in China." Ives noted that issues in China could pose ongoing challenges going forward even with the largely positive outlook.
Inflation is driving a return to the gig economy, according to a new survey from Branch & Marqeta that found 85 percent of workers have increased or planned to increase their amount of gig work in the past six months, with 58 percent citing inflation as the reason behind this change. Arun Sundararajan, professor at NYU Stern School of Business, breaks down this dynamic and how it's impacting the broader economy. "Inflation is rampant and people need more money. Salaried wages haven't kept up. Plus the labor market is tight. People can't find full time employees, employers can't find full time employees, and so some people are being opportunistic," he said. "And I also think there's a COVID effect because people have gotten used to more flexibility and time and space because people have gotten used to more flexibility and time and space, through the months of the lockdown."
A new report from DrakeStar Partners, an investment bank that closely tracks the sector, said $98.7 billion in deals were announced or closed in the first three months of the year. T
AT&T reported a 2.5 percent rise in its core wireless revenue for the first quarter as its 5G rollout expands across the United States, even as the company pivots away from streaming to focus on its communication business amid heightened demand for high-speed internet. CEO John Stankey joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the company's 5G plans, its divestment from WarnerMedia, and its push into the metaverse. "To the extent that we start to see social aspects come into the metaverse that allows people to — as they're out and about — experience those kinds of things, that just puts a higher premium on mobile networks and scaled robust mobile networks to enable those applications, which is our bread and butter, and it's probably one of our best returning and best yielding businesses," he said.
The last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, Ukraine, has been given a brief respite, the Biden admin is appealing the transit mask mandate being overturned, and Tesla reports earnings. Here is all the news you Need2Know for April 21, 2022.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 21, 2022, with President Biden set to announce more security assistance funding to Ukraine, polls showing a majority of Americans in favor of transit mask mandates, rapper A$AP Rocky's arrest, and more.
